CHAP. XVIII 
EL BOGOI TO MOMBASA 
409 
of the range ; so that we did not reach the stream on which I 
meant to camp, in the open just outside the forest, till noon. 
My intention was to make a strong “ boma ” round our camp, 
believing that, with proper precautions, we should be able to 
sleep safely; and that, as soon as an animal for bait could be 
killed, we might trap the lion which had caused the neighbour¬ 
hood to be dreaded by the defenceless Ndorobo stragglers who 
sometimes wandered hither. At the same time, I did not 
believe that our party would be in much danger. 
Unluckily, heavy rain came on (during which it is impossible 
to keep Africans at work), still further delaying our preparations, 
so that when the evening closed in, cloudy and threatening, the 
fence was only half built. The grass in the open country was 
now yellow, and about the stream a good deal of it was old 
and rather long. My men were camped at the foot of a single 
tree which grew on a little knoll, my tent being a few yards 
away. When the young moon went down, it became very dark 
and showery, and I confess I did not feel very happy, thinking 
about the man-eating lion and our exposed position. 
There was a fire, as usual, in front of my tent, and the men 
had collected plenty of wood and had made several all round 
them, beside which they sat talking till near midnight ; but 
with their usual carelessness they had all gone to sleep about 
the same time, so that when I went outside once more, a little 
before one o’clock, after some fitful and uneasy sleep, all was 
quiet and only Baithai was still sitting up. I had just awoke 
from a troubled slumber and a disagreeable dream about a lion 
invading my camp, and felt uncomfortable. I lay down again, 
however, and had just gone off again into a light sleep when I 
was suddenly aroused by the commotion of an attack—this 
time, alas ! too real—from the lion we had heard so much 
about. Its growls —■ such familiar sounds to me now, the 
meaning of which I knew too well—were mingled with shouts 
and cries of alarm from the men, and the scuffling noise 
occasioned by its and their movements. Seizing my rifle, I 
