Stony Athi, close to where
the railway was to cross, and made my notes of what was necessary for
the temporary bridge. At the time the river was absolutely dry, but I
knew that it might at any moment become a roaring torrent if rain
should set in; it would therefore be necessary to span it with a
forty-foot girder in order to prevent constant "washouts" during the
rainy season. The next morning I started early on my return to
railhead. On my way I had to pass the camp which the Basoga caravan had
just left, but the spectacle of about a dozen newly-made graves which
the hyenas had already torn open caused me to put spurs to my horse and
to gallop as fast as possible through the pestilential spot. When I had
almost got back to railhead I happened to notice a huge serpent
stretched out on the grass, warming himself, his skin of old gold and
bright green sparkling brilliantly in the sunshine. He appeared to take
little notice of me as I cautiously approached, and was probably drowsy
and sated with a heavy meal. I shot him through the head as he lay, and
the muscular contortions after death throughout his long body gave me a
very vivid idea of the tremendous squeezing power possessed by these
reptiles. Skinning him was an easy process, but unfortunately his
beautiful colouring soon disappeared, the old gold turning to white and
the bright green to lustreless black.

CHAPTER XX

A DAY ON THE ATHI RIVER

In spite of all our difficulties, rapid progress continued to be made
with the line. Each day railhead crept a mile or so further across the
Plains, and on April 24 we reached the Stony Athi River, where our
great camp was pitched for a few days while the temporary bridge was
being thrown across the dry bed of the stream. Still another temporary
bridge had to be arranged for the Athi itself, which was some eight
miles further on, so I had to make one or two expeditions to this river
in order to select a suitable place for the crossing and to make
various other arrangements. On one of these occasions I was busy
attending to the pitching of my tent after arriving at the Athi late in
the evening, when on looking round I was very much surprised to see two
European ladies sitting under the shade of some trees on the river
bank. As I knew that this was anything but a safe place in which to
rest, owing to the number of lions about, I went up to them to see if I
could be of any assistance, and found that they were American