160 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
which line the banks, and watch the animals come 
down to drink, all unconscious of my presence. I 
took several photographs of scenes of this kind, but 
unfortunately many of the negatives were spoiled. 
Often, too, on a brilliant moonlight night have | sat 
ona rock out in the middle of the stream, near a 
favourite drinking place, waiting for a shot at what- 
ever fortune might send my way. How exaspera- 
ting it was, when the wind changed at the critical 
moment, and gave me away to the rhino or other 
animal | had sat there for hours patiently awaiting ! 
Occasionally I would get heartily tired of my weary 
vigil and would wade ashore through the warm 
water, to make my bed in the soft sand regardless 
of the szapf, snap of the crocodiles which could 
plainly be heard from the deeper pools up and down 
the river. At the time, being new to the country, 
I did not realise the risks I ran; but later on—after 
my poor Wa Kamba follower had been seized and 
dragged under, as I have already described—I 
learned to be much more cautious. 
The shortest way of reaching the Athi river from 
T’savo was to strike through the jungle in a north- 
westerly direction, and here there was luckily a par- 
ticularly well-defined rhino path which I always 
made use of. I discovered it quite by accident on 
one occasion when I had asked some guests, who 
were staying with me at Tsavo, to spend a night on 
