vi THE REIGN OF TERROR 69 



night when the brutes seized a man from the railway 

 station and brought him close to my camp to 

 devour. I could plainly hear them crunching the 

 bones, and the sound of their dreadful purring filled 

 the air and rang in my ears for days afterwards. 

 The terrible thing was to feel so helpless ; it was 

 useless to attempt to go out, as of course the poor 

 fellow was dead, and in addition it was so pitch 

 dark as to make it impossible to see anything. 

 Some half a dozen workmen, who lived in a small 

 enclosure close to mine, became so terrified on hear- 

 ing the lions at their meal that they shouted and 

 implored me to allow them to come inside my boma. 

 This I willingly did, but soon afterwards I remem- 

 bered that one man had been lying ill in their camp, 

 and on making enquiry I found that they had 

 callously left him behind alone. I immediately took 

 some men with me to bring him to my boma, but on 

 entering his tent I saw by the light of the lantern 

 that the poor fellow was beyond need of safety. 

 He had died of shock at being deserted by his 

 companions. 



From this time matters gradually became worse 

 and worse. Hitherto, as a rule, only one of the 

 man-eaters had made the attack and had done the 

 foraging, while the other waited outside in the bush ; 

 but now they began to change their tactics, entering 

 the bomas together and each seizing a victim. In 



