vi THE REIGN OF TERROR 71 



section, which for safety's sake was situated within a 

 stone's throw of Tsavo Station and close to a 

 Permanent Way Inspector's iron hut. Suddenly in 

 the dead of night the two man-eaters burst in among 

 the terrified workmen, and even from my boma, 

 some distance away, 1 could plainly hear the panic- 

 stricken shrieking of the coolies. Then followed 

 cries of " They've taken him ; they've taken him," 

 as the brutes carried off their unfortunate victim and 

 began their horrible feast close beside the camp. 

 The Inspector, Mr. Dalgairns, fired over fifty shots 

 in the direction in which he heard the lions, but they 

 were not to be frightened and calmly lay there until 

 their meal was finished. After examining the spot 

 in the morning, we at once set out to follow the 

 brutes, Mr. Dalgairns feeling confident that he had 

 wounded one of them, as there was a trail on the 

 sand like that of the toes of a broken limb. After 

 some careful stalking, we suddenly found ourselves 

 in the vicinity of the lions, and were greeted with 

 ominous growlings. Cautiously advancing and 

 pushing the bushes aside, we saw in the gloom what 

 we at first took to be a lion cub ; closer inspection, 

 however, showed it to be the remains of the 

 unfortunate coolie, which the man-eaters had 

 evidently abandoned at our approach. The legs, 

 one arm and half the body had been eaten, and it 

 was the stiff fingers of the other arm trailing along 



