a narrow escape. Warned by this experience, I at
once arranged to move my quarters, and went to join forces with Dr.
Brock, who had just arrived at Tsavo to take medical charge of the
district. We shared a hut of palm leaves and boughs, which we had
constructed on the eastern side of the river, close to the old caravan
route leading to Uganda; and we had it surrounded by a circular boma,
or thorn fence, about seventy yards in diameter, well made and thick
and high. Our personal servants also lived within the enclosure, and a
bright fire was always kept up throughout the night. For the sake of
coolness, Brock and I used to sit out under the verandah of this hut in
the evenings; but it was rather trying to our nerves to attempt to read
or write there, as we never knew when a lion might spring over the
boma, and be on us before we were aware. We therefore kept our rifles
within easy reach, and cast many an anxious glance out into the inky
darkness beyond the circle of the firelight. On one or two occasions,
we found in the morning that the lions had come quite close to the
fence; but fortunately they never succeeded in getting through.

By this time, too, the camps of the workmen had also been surrounded by
thorn fences; nevertheless the lions managed to jump over or to break
through some one or other of these, and regularly every few nights a
man was carried off, the reports of the disappearance of this or that
workman coming in to me with painful frequency. So long, however, as
Railhead Camp--with its two or three thousand men, scattered over a
wide area--remained at Tsavo, the coolies appeared not to take much
notice of the dreadful deaths of their comrades. Each man felt, I
suppose, that as the man-eaters had such a large number of victims to
choose from, the chances of their selecting him in particular were very
small. But when the large camp moved ahead with the railway, matters
altered considerably. I was then left with only some few hundred men to
complete the permanent works; and as all the remaining workmen were
naturally camped together, the attentions of the lions became more
apparent and made a deeper impression. A regular panic consequently
ensued, and it required all my powers of persuasion to induce the men
to stay on. In fact, I succeeded in doing so only by allowing them to
knock off all regular work until they had built exceptionally thick and
high bomas round each camp. Within these enclosures fires wer