THE ATTACK ON THE GOODS-WAGON
All this time my own tent was pitched in an open clearing, unprotected
by a fence of any kind round it. One night when the medical officer;
Dr. Rose, was staying with me, we were awakened about midnight by
hearing something tumbling about among the tent ropes, but on going out
with a lantern we could discover nothing. Daylight, however, plainly
revealed the "pug" marks of a lion, so that on that occasion I fancy
one or other of us had 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 were kept
burning all night, and it was also the duty of the night-watchman to
keep clattering half a dozen empty oil tins suspended from a convenient
tree. These he manipulated by means of a long rope, while sitting in
safety within his tent; and the frightful noise thus produced was kept
up at frequent intervals during the night in the hopes of terrifying
away the man-eaters. In spite of all these precautions, however, the
lions would not be denied, and men continued to disappear.
When the railhead workmen moved on, their hospital camp was left
behind. It stood rather apart from the other camps, in a clearing about
three-quarters of a mile from my hut, but was protected by a good thick
fence and to all appearance was quite secure. It seemed, however, as if
barriers were of no avail against the "demons", for before very long
one of them found a weak spot in the boma and broke through. On this
occasion the Hospital Assistant had a marvellous escape. Hearing a
noise outside, he opened the door of his tent and was horrified to see
a great lion standing a few yards away looking at him. The beast made a
spring towards him, which gave the Assistant such a fright that he
jumped backwards, and in doing so luckily upset a box containing
medical stores. This crashed down with such a loud clatter of breaking
glass that the lion was startled for the moment and made off to another
part of the enclosure. Here, unfortunately, he was more successful, as
he jumped on to and broke through a tent in which eight patients were
lying. Two of them were badly wounded by his spring, while a third poor
wretch was seized and dragged off bodily through the thorn fence. The
two wounded coolies were left where they lay, a piece of torn tent
having fallen over them; and in this position the doctor and I found
them on our arrival soon after dawn next morning. We at once decided to
move the hospital closer to the main camp; a fresh site was prepared, a
stout hedge built round the enclosure, and all the patients were moved
in before nightfall.
As I had heard that lions generally visit recently deserted camps, I
decided to sit up all night in the vacated boma in the hope of getting
an opportunity of bagging one of them; but in the middle of my lonely
vigil I had the mortification of hearing shrieks and cries coming from
the direction of the new hospital, telling me only too plainly that our
dreaded foes had once more eluded me. Hurrying to the place at daylight
I found that one of the lions had jumped over the newly erected fence
and had carried off the hospital bhisti (water-carrier), and that
several other coolies had been unwilling witnesses of the terrible
scene which took place within the circle of light given by the big camp
fire. The bhisti, it appears, had been lying on the floor, with his
head towards the centre of the tent and his feet neatly touching the
side. The lion managed to get its head in below the canvas, seized him
by the foot and pulled him out. In desperation the unfortunate
water-carrier clutched hold of a heavy box in a vain attempt to prevent
himself being carried off, and dragged it with him until he was forced
to let go by its being stopped by the side of the tent. He then caught
hold of a tent rope, and clung tightly to it until it broke. As soon as
the lion managed to get him clear of the tent, he sprang at his throat
and after a few vicious shakes the poor bhisti's agonising cries were
silenced for ever. The brute then seized him in his mouth, like a huge
cat with a mouse, and ran up and down the boma looking for a weak spot
to break through. This he presently found and plunged into, dragging
his victim with him and leaving shreds of torn cloth and flesh as
ghastly evidences of his passage through the thorns. Dr. Brock and I
were easily able to follow his track, and soon found the remains about
four hundred yards away in the bush. There was the usual horrible
sight. Very little was left of the unfortunate bhisti--only the skull,
the jaws, a few of the larger bones and a portion of the palm with one
or two fingers attached. On one of these was a silver ring, and this,
with the teeth (a relic much prized by certain castes), was sent to the
man's widow in India.
Again it was decided to move the hospital; and again, before nightfall,
the work was completed, including a still stronger and thicker boma.
When the patients had been moved, I had a covered goods-wagon placed in
a favourable position on a siding which ran close to the site which had
just been abandoned, and in this Brock and I arranged to sit up that
night. We left a couple of tents still standing within the enclosure,
and also tied up a few cattle in it as bait for the lions, who had been
seen in no less than three different places in the neighbourhood during
the afternoon (April 23). Four miles from Tsavo they had attempted to
seize a coolie who was walking along the line. Fortunately, however, he
had just time to escape up a tree, where he remained, more dead than
alive, until he was rescued by the Traffic Manager, who caught sight of
him from a passing train. They next appeared close to Tsavo Station,
and a couple of hours later some workmen saw one of the lions stalking
Dr. Brock as he was returning about dusk from the hospital.
In accordance with our plan, the doctor and I set out after dinner for
the goods-wagon, which was about a mile away from our hut. In the light
of subsequent events, we did a very foolish thing in taking up our
position so late; nevertheless, we reached our destination in safety,
and settled down to our watch about ten o'clock. We had the lower half
of the door of the wagon closed, while the upper half was left wide
open for observation: and we faced, of course, in the direction of the
abandoned boma, which, however, we were unable to see in the inky
darkness. For an hour or two everything was quiet, and the deadly
silence was becoming very monotonous and oppressive, when suddenly, to
our right, a dry twig snapped, and we knew that an animal of some sort
was about. Soon afterwards we heard a dull thud, as if some heavy body
had jumped over the boma. The cattle, too, became very uneasy, and we
could hear them moving about restlessly. Then again came dead silence.
At this juncture I proposed to my companion that I should get out of
the wagon and lie on the ground close to it, as I could see better in
that position should the lion come in our direction with his prey.
Brock, however, persuaded me to remain where I was; and a few seconds
afterwards I was heartily glad that I had taken his advice, for at that
very moment one of the man-eaters--although we did not know it--was
quietly stalking us, and was even then almost within springing
distance. Orders had been given for the entrance to the boma to be
blocked up, and accordingly we were listening in the expectation of
hearing the lion force his way out through the bushes with his prey. As
a matter of fact, however, the doorway had not been properly closed,
and while we were wondering what the lion could be doing inside the
boma for so long, he was outside all the time, silently reconnoitring
our position.
Presently I fancied I saw something coming very stealthily towards us.
I feared, however, to trust to my eyes, which by that time were
strained by prolonged staring through the darkness, so under my breath
I asked Brock whether he saw anything, at the same time covering the
dark object as well as I could with my rifle. Brock did not answer; he
told me afterwards that he, too, thought he had seen something move,
but was afraid to say so lest I should fire and it turn out to be
nothing after all. After this there was intense silence again for a
second or two, then with a sudden bound a huge body sprang at us. "The
lion!" I shouted, and we both fired almost simultaneously--not a moment
too soon, for in another second the brute would assuredly have landed
inside the wagon. As it was, he must have swerved off in his spring,
probably blinded by the flash and frightened by the noise of the double
report which was increased a hundredfold by the reverberation of the
hollow iron roof of the truck. Had we not been very much on the alert,
he would undoubtedly have got one of us, and we realised that we had
had a very lucky and very narrow escape. The next morning we found
Brock's bullet embedded in the sand close to a footprint; it could not
have missed the lion by more than an inch or two. Mine was nowhere to
be found.
Thus ended my first direct encounter with one of the man-eaters.