THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
and night after night the former dreadful scenes were reénacted. The 
lions grew so bold as to be indifferent to shots, firebrands, or noise, some- 
times calmly devouring their victims almost on the spot where they were 
seized. ‘I have,” says Colonel Patterson, ‘‘a vivid recollection of one 
particular night when they took a man from the railway station and brought 
him close to my camp to eat. I could distinctly hear them crunching the 
bones and purring like cats over the meal.... J have experienced nothing 
more nerve-shaking than to listen, after darkness had closed in, to the deep 
roars of these monsters growing gradually nearer and nearer, and to know 
that one or the other of us had to be their victim before the morning 
dawned.” The men took to sleeping on top of buildings, water tanks, 
trees, and in like places, yet some one was taken nightly; many ran away, 
even seizing trains by which to escape; all construction of the railroad 
ceased, and the great Lord Salisbury informed Parliament (in effect) that 
the British lion was no match for two African ones. This state of siege 
continued for weeks, but at last the persistent and plucky efforts of the 
superintendent were rewarded. 
“My continued ill luck was most exasperating. The Indians were, of 
course, further confirmed in their belief about a devil, and, indeed, the lions 
seemed to bear a charmed life. .. I tried to track the beast I felt sure I 
had wounded, but could not keep on the trail; there was no blood on the 
rocks to give a clew which way he had gone. I returned to look at the dead 
donkey, which I found slightly eaten at the quarters. Lions always begin 
at the tail of an animal and eat up toward the head. It was practically 
certain that one or other of the lions would return at night to finish the meal. 
There was no tree of any size near, so within ten yards of the dead donkey 
I made a staging about twelve feet high of four poles, with their ends fixed 
in the ground. They inclined toward each other at the top, where a plank 
was lashed for me to sit on. 
“At sundown I got on the machan. Much to the disgust of my gun- 
bearer I went alone. I would have taken him, only he had a cough, and 
I feared lest any noise or movement should spoil all. Darkness fell almost 
immediately. The silence of an African jungle about this time is most 
impressive, especially when one is alone and isolated from his kind, for man 
has retired, and the wild denizens of the woods have not yet raised their 
cry. I was startled out of the reverie I had fallen into by the snapping of 
a twig, and, straining my ears, I heard the rustling as of a large body forc- 
ing his way through the bushes. ‘The lions,’ I whispered to myself, and 
my heart gave a great bound. ‘Surely, to-night my luck will change, and 
I shall bag one of the monsters.’ Such were my thoughts during the still- 
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