2 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP. 



at this part of the route. The unchangeable 

 face of this expanse of sun-bleached nyika re- 

 called to my memory a thousand incidents and 

 adventures connected with the building of the 

 railway, when it was an everyday occurrence for 

 workmen to be seized and devoured by the two 

 insatiable man-eating lions who at that time haunted 

 these wilds. I have told the story of their dep- 

 redations and final end in a previous volume 

 entitled The Man-Eaters of Tsavo; but the details 

 of many tragic deaths and narrow escapes remain 

 still unrecorded, and some of these came crowd- 

 ing back to my mind with startling vividness as 

 bit by bit the well-known route unfolded itself 

 before my eyes. 



It was with a shudder that I recalled, in particu- 

 lar, the circumstances connected with the death of a 

 workman who was seized and devoured near here 

 by one of the brutes. A platelayer who witnessed 

 the whole occurrence described it to me very real- 

 istically a few hours after it had happened, and it is 

 as gruesome a story as any that has yet been told. 

 The victim was an Indian coolie who happened to 

 be one of a gang sent down from Railhead to 

 load up some building material which was required 

 for platelaying. At this particular time the Man- 

 Eaters had not yet made the name of Tsavo so 

 terrible and sinister in the ears of the workmen as it 



