d rested several times I felt sure that he had been badly
wounded. In the end, however, my hunt proved fruitless, for after a
time the traces of blood ceased and the surface of the ground became
rocky, so that I was no longer able to follow the spoor.

About this time Sir Guilford Molesworth, K.C.I.E., late Consulting
Engineer to the Government of India for State Railways, passed through
Tsavo on a tour of inspection on behalf of the Foreign Office. After
examining the bridge and other works and expressing his satisfaction,
he took a number of photographs, one or two of which he has kindly
allowed me to reproduce in this book. He thoroughly sympathised with us
in all the trials we had endured from the man-eaters, and was delighted
that one at least was dead. When he asked me if I expected to get the
second lion soon, I well remember his half-doubting smile as I rather
too confidently asserted that I hoped to bag him also in the course of
a few days.

As it happened, there was no sign of our enemy for about ten days after
this, and we began to hope that he had died of his wounds in the bush.
All the same we still took every precaution at night, and it was
fortunate that we did so, as otherwise at least one more victim would
have been added to the list. For on the night of December 27, I was
suddenly aroused by terrified shouts from my trolley men, who slept in
a tree close outside my boma, to the effect that a lion was trying to
get at them. It would have been madness to have gone out, as the moon
was hidden by dense clouds and it was absolutely impossible to see
anything more than a yard in front of one; so all I could do was to
fire off a few rounds just to frighten the brute away. This apparently
had the desired effect, for the men were not further molested that
night; but the man-eater had evidently prowled about for some time, for
we found in the morning that he had gone right into every one of their
tents, and round the tree was a regular ring of his footmarks.

The following evening I took up my position in this same tree, in the
hope that he would make another attempt. The night began badly, as,
while climbing up to my perch I very nearly put my hand on a venomous
snake which was lying coiled round one of the branches. As may be
imagined, I came down again very quickly, but one of my men managed to
despatch it with a long pole. Fortunately the night was clear and
cloudless, and the moon made every thing almost