CHAPTER II 



THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE MAN-EATERS 



UNFORTUNATELY this happy state of affairs did not 

 continue for long, and our work was soon interrupted 

 in a rude and startling manner. Two most voraci- 

 ous and insatiable man-eating lions appeared upon 

 the scene, and for over nine months waged an inter- 

 mittent warfare against the railway and all those 

 connected with it in the vicinity of Tsavo. This 

 culminated in a perfect reign of terror in December, 

 1898, when they actually succeeded in bringing the 

 railway works to a complete standstill for about three 

 weeks. At first they were not always successful in their 

 efforts to carry off a victim, but as time went on they 

 stopped at nothing and indeed braved any danger in 

 order to obtain their favourite food. Their methods 

 then became so uncanny, and their man-stalking so 

 well-timed and so certain of success, that the work- 

 men firmly believed that they were not real animals 

 at all, but devils in lions' shape. Many a time the 



