68 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



cries would prove of no avail, and sooner or later 

 agonising shrieks would break the silence and 

 another man would be missing from roll-call next 

 morning. 



I was naturally very disheartened at being foiled 

 in this way night after night, and was soon at 

 my wits' end to know what to do ; it seemed 

 as if the lions were really " devils " after all and 

 bore a charmed life. As I have said before, track- 

 ing them through the jungle was a hopeless task ; 

 but as something had to be done to keep up the 

 men's spirits, I spent many a weary day crawling on 

 my hands and knees through the dense undergrowth 

 of the exasperating wilderness around us. As a 

 matter of fact, if I had come up with the lions 

 on any of these expeditions, it was much more 

 likely that they would have added me to their list 

 of victims than that I should have succeeded in 

 killing either of them, as everything would have 

 been in their favour. About this time, too, I had 

 many helpers, and several officers civil, naval and 

 military came to Tsavo from the coast and sat up 

 night after night in order to get a shot at our daring 

 foes. All of us, however, met with the same lack of 

 success, and the lions always seemed capable of 

 avoiding the watchers, while succeeding at the same 

 time in obtaining a victim. 



I have a very vivid recollection of one particular 



