178 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO — cuap. 
‘All four askarts then came forward and lifted 
my husband back on to the bed. He was quite 
dead. We had hardly got back into the tent before 
the lion returned and prowled about in front of the 
door, showing every intention of springing in to 
recover his prey. The askarts fired at him, but did 
no damage beyond frightening him away again for 
a moment or two. He soon came back and con- 
tinued to walk round the tent until daylight, growl- 
ing and purring, and it was only by firing 
through the tent every now and then that we kept 
him out. At daybreak he disappeared and I had 
my husband’s body carried here, while I followed 
with the children until I met you.” 
Such was Mrs. O’Hara’s pitiful story. The 
only comfort we could give her was to assure her 
that her husband had died instantly and without 
pain ; for while she had been resting Dr. Rose had 
made a post-mortem examination of the body and 
had come to this conclusion. He found that 
O’Hara had evidently been lying on his back at 
the time, and that the lion, seizing his head in its 
mouth, had closed its long tusks through his temples 
until they met again in the brain. We buried him 
before nightfall in a peaceful spot close by, the 
doctor reading the funeral service, while I assisted 
in lowering the rude coffin into the grave. It was 
the saddest scene imaginable. The weeping widow, 
tern 
