IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA 



CHAPTER I 



TSAVO REVISITED 



ON the loth October, 1907, I sailed out of Mar- 

 seilles harbour, bound once again for Mombasa, the 

 picturesque gate of that land of sun and adventure, 

 British East Africa. Within three weeks we reached 

 our destination and dropped anchor in the harbour 

 of Kilindini. From this port I took train for Nairobi, 

 the capital of the country; and at about midnight on 

 the ist November I awoke from a restless slumber in 

 a Uganda Railway carriage, and found myself speed- 

 ing down the incline which leads into the valley of 

 the Tsavo, some one hundred and thirty miles from 

 the coast. 



It was with a feeling of returning to my own 

 that I peered out of the carriage window on that 

 star-lit night, gazing into the gloomy depths of 

 the thorny wilderness which shuts in the iron way 



