CHAPTER XXIII 



A SUCCESSFUL LION HUNT 



WHEN the Athi river had been bridged, the 

 section of the line to Nairobi was pushed forward as 

 rapidly as possible, and from dawn to dark we all 

 exerted ourselves to the very utmost. One day 

 (May 28) the weather was exceptionally hot, and I 

 had been out in the broiling sun ever since daylight 

 superintending the construction of banks and 

 cuttings and the erection of temporary bridges. On 

 returning to my hut, therefore, at about three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, I threw myself into a long deck 

 chair, too tired for anything beyond a long cool 

 drink. Here I rested for an hour or so, amused by 

 the bustle at the small wayside station we had just 

 built, and idly watching our tiny construction engine 

 forging its -way, with a great deal of clanking and 

 puffing, up a steep gradient just across the river. 

 It was touch-and-go whether it would manage to 

 get its heavy load of rails and sleepers to the top of 



