36 
IN AFRICA 
Tsavo. These two lions absolutely stopped all work 
on the railroad for a period of several weeks. They 
were daring beyond belief, and seemed to have no 
fear of human beings. For a time all efforts to kill 
them were in vain. Twenty-eight native workmen 
were eaten by them, and doubtless many more were 
unrecorded victims of their activity. The whole 
country was terrorized until finally, after many fu¬ 
tile attempts, they were at last killed. 
No book on Africa seems complete unless this 
incident is mentioned somewhere within its pages. 
We looked out at Tsavo with devouring interest. 
All was still, with the dead silence of a tropical 
night. Then the train steamed on and we had sev¬ 
eral hours in a berth to think the matter over. In 
the early hours of morning, we stopped at Simba, 
the “Place of Lions,” where the station-master has 
many lion scares even now. In the cold darkness of 
the night we bundled up in thick clothes and went 
forward to sit on the observation seat of the engine. 
Slowly the eastern skies became gray, then pink, 
and finally day broke through heavy masses of 
clouds. It was intensely cold. In the faint light we 
could see shadowy figures of animals creeping home 
after their night’s hunting. A huge cheetah 
bounded along the track in front of us. A troop 
of giraffes slowly ambled away from the track. 
A gaunt hyena loped off into the scrub near the 
side of the railroad and then, as daylight became 
brighter, we found ourselves in the midst of thou¬ 
sands of wild animals. Zebras, hartebeests, Grant’s 
