178 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



''All four askaris then came forward and lifted 

 my husband back on to the bed. He was quite 

 dead. We had hardly got back into the tent before 

 the lion returned and prowled about in front of the 

 door, showing every intention of springing in to 

 recover his prey. The askaris fired at him, but did 

 no damage beyond frightening him away again for 

 a moment or two. He soon came back and con- 

 tinued to walk round the tent until daylight, growl- 

 ing and purring, and it was only by firing 

 through the tent every now and then that we kept 

 him out. At daybreak he disappeared and I had 

 my husband's body carried here, while I followed 

 with the children until I met you." 



Such was Mrs. O'Hara's pitiful story. The 

 only comfort we could give her was to assure her 

 that her husband had died instantly and without 

 pain ; for while she had been resting Dr. Rose had 

 made a post-mortem examination of the body and 

 had come to this conclusion. He found that 

 O'Hara had evidently been lying on his back at 

 the time, and that the lion, seizing his head in its 

 mouth, had closed its long tusks through his temples 

 until they met again in the brain. We buried him 

 before nightfall in a peaceful spot close by, the 

 doctor reading the funeral service, while I assisted 

 in lowering the rude coffin into the grave. It was 

 the saddest scene imaginable. The weeping widow, 



