182 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
compared with that of the sun-baked valley in which 
I had spent the previous year. 
My instructions were to hurry on the construc- 
tion of the line as fast as possible to Nairobi, the 
proposed headquarters of the Railway Administra- 
‘* FIRST THE EARTH SURFACE HAS TO BE PREPARED.” 
tion, which lay about fifty miles further on across 
the Athi Plains; and I soon began to find plate- 
laying most interesting work. Everything has to 
move as if by clockwork. First the earth surface 
has to be prepared and rendered perfectly smooth 
and level; cuttings have to be made and hollows 
banked up ; tunnels have to be bored through hills 
