26 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



At this time the various camps for the workmen 

 were very scattered, so that the lions had a range of 

 some eight miles on either side of Tsavo to work 

 upon ; and as their tactics seemed to be to break into 

 a different camp each night, it was most difficult to 

 forestall them. They almost appeared, too, to have 

 an extraordinary and uncanny faculty of finding out 

 our plans beforehand, so that no matter in how 

 likely or how tempting a spot we lay in wait for them, 

 they invariably avoided that particular place and 

 seized their victim for the night from some other 

 camp. Hunting them by day, moreover, in such a 

 dense wilderness as surrounded us, was an exceed- 

 ingly tiring and really foolhardy undertaking. In a 

 thick jungle of the kind round Tsavo the hunted 

 animal has every chance against the hunter, as 

 however careful the latter may be, a dead twig or 

 something of the sort is sure to crackle just at the 

 critical moment and so give the alarm. Still I never 

 gave up hope of some day finding their lair, and 

 accordingly continued to devote all my spare time to 

 crawling about through the undergrowth. Many a 

 time when attempting to force my way through this 

 bewildering tangle I had to be released by my gun- 

 bearer from the fast clutches of the " w r ait-a-bit " ; 

 and often with immense pains I succeeded in tracing 

 the lions to the river after they had seized a victim, 

 only to lose the trail from there onwards, owing to 



