56 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



put me quietly out of the way. Accordingly they 

 held a meeting one night, all being sworn to secrecy, 

 and after a long palaver it was arranged that I was 

 to be murdered next day when I made my usual 

 visit to the quarry. My body was to be thrown 

 into the jungle, where of course it would soon be 

 devoured by wild beasts, and then they were to say 

 that I had been killed and eaten by a lion. To this 

 cheerful proposal every man present at the meeting 

 agreed, and affixed his finger-mark to a long strip of 

 paper as a binding token. Within an hour after the 

 meeting had dispersed, however, I was aroused by 

 one of the conspirators, who had crept into my camp 

 to give me warning. I thanked him for his infor- 

 mation, but determined to go to the quarry in the 

 morning all the same, as at this stage of affairs I 

 really did not believe that they were capable of 

 carrying out such a diabolical scheme, and was 

 rather inclined to think that the informant had been 

 sent merely to frighten me. 



Accordingly the next morning (September 6) I 

 started off as usual along the trolley line to the 

 lonely quarry. As I reached a bend in the line, 

 my head mason, Heera Singh, a very good man, 

 crept cautiously out of the bushes and warned 

 me not to proceed. On my asking him the reason, 

 he said that he dared not tell, but that he and 

 twenty other masons were not going to work that 



