IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP. 



narrow escape at a camp near the Tsavo Bridge. 

 The occurrence took place at a time when the 

 fear of the brutes had gripped hold of every- 

 body, and the imaginative Hindu had already 

 endowed the lions with supernatural powers. 

 Five Sikh carpenters had made a staging some 



" FIVE SIKH CARPENTERS HAD MADE A STAGING. ' 



eight feet high and on this had pitched their tent, 

 where they slept in peace, and, as they thought, in 

 safety. Every night they gained access to their 

 airy abode by means of a movable ladder, and they 

 took the precaution, Robinson Cruspe-like, of pulling 

 it up into their castle immediately after nightfall. I 

 had already warned these men that their perch was 

 not nearly high enough, and told them that they 



