THE COMPLETION OF THE TSAVO BRIDGE
When all the excitement had died down and there was no longer any dread
of the man-eaters, work went on briskly, and the bridge over the Tsavo
rapidly neared completion. As the piers and abutments progressed in
height, the question of how to lift the large stones into their
positions had to be solved. We possessed no cranes for this purpose, so
I set to work and improvised a shears made of a couple of thirty-foot
rails. These were bolted together at the top, while the other ends were
fixed at a distance of about ten feet apart in a large block of wood.
This contrivance acted capitally, and by manipulation of ropes and
pulleys the heavy stones were swung into position quickly and without
difficulty, so that in a very short time the masonry of the bridge was
completed.
The next business was to span the sixty-foot distance between the piers
with iron girders. As I had neither winches nor sufficient blocks and
tackle to haul these over into position, I was driven to erect
temporary piers in the middle of each span, built up crib-shape of
wooden sleepers. Great wooden beams were stretched across from the
stone piers to these cribs, and laid with rails; and the girder was run
over its exact place, while still on the trucks in which it had been
brought up from the coast. It was next "jacked" up from the trucks,
which were hauled away empty, the temporary bridge was dismantled, and
the girder finally lowered gently into position. When the last girder
was thus successfully placed, no time was lost in linking up the
permanent way, and very soon I had the satisfaction of seeing the first
train cross the finished work.
Curiously enough, only a day or so after the bridge had been completed
and the intermediate cribs cleared away, a tremendous rain-storm broke
over the country. The river started to rise rapidly, soon flooding its
banks and becoming a raging murky torrent, tearing up trees by the
roots and whirling them along like straws. Steadily higher and higher
rose the flood, and standing on my bridge, I watched expectantly for
the two temporary trolley bridges--which, it will be remembered, we had
built across the stream in order to bring stone and sand to the main
work--to give way before the ever-rising volume of water. Nor had I
long to wait; for I soon caught sight of a solid mass of palm stems and
railway sleepers sweeping with almost irresistible force round the bend
of the river some little distance above the bridge. This I knew was the
debris of the trolley crossing furthest up the river. On it came, and
with it an additional bank of stormy-looking water. I held my breath
for the space of a moment as it actually leaped at the second frail
structure; there was a dull thud and a rending and riving of timbers,
and then the flood rolled on towards me, leaving not a vestige of the
two bridges behind it. The impact, indeed, was so great that the rails
were twisted round the broken tree-trunks as if they had been so much
ordinary wire. The double tier of wreckage now swept forward, and
hurled itself with a sullen plunge against the cutwaters of my stone
piers. The shock was great, but to my immense satisfaction the bridge
took it without a tremor, and I saw the remnant of the temporary
crossings swirl through the great spans and quickly disappear on its
journey to the ocean. I confess that I witnessed the whole occurrence
with a thrill of pride.
We were never long without excitement of some kind or another at Tsavo.
When the camp was not being attacked by man-eating lions, it was
visited by leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, wild cats, and other
inhabitants of the jungle around us. These animals did a great deal of
damage to the herds of sheep and goats which were kept to supply the
commissariat, and there was always great rejoicing when a capture was
made in one of the many traps that were laid for them.
Leopards especially are most destructive, often killing simply for
pleasure and not for food: and I have always harboured animosity
towards them since the night when one wantonly destroyed a whole herd
of mine. I happened at the time to have a flock of about thirty sheep
and goats which I kept for food and for milk, and which were secured at
sundown in a grass hut at one corner of my boma. One particularly dark
night we were startled by a tremendous commotion in this shed, but as
this was before the man-eaters were killed, no one dared stir out to
investigate the cause of the disturbance. I naturally thought that the
intruder was one of the "demons," but all I could do was to fire
several shots in the direction of the hut, hoping to frighten him away.
In spite of these, however, it was some time before the noise died down
and everything became still again. As soon as it was dawn I went to the
shed to see what had happened, and there, to my intense anger, I found
every one of my sheep and goats lying stretched dead, on the ground
with its throat bitten through. A hole had been made through the frail
wall of the shed, and I saw from this and from the tracks all round
that the author of the wholesale slaughter had been a leopard. He had
not eaten one of the flock, but had killed them all out of pure love of
destruction.
I hoped that he would return the next night to make a meal; and should
he do so, I determined to have my revenge. I accordingly left the
carcases exactly as they lay, and having a very powerful steel
trap--like an enormous rat-trap, and quite strong enough to hold a
leopard if he should put his foot in it--I placed this in the opening
into the shed and secured it by a stout chain to a long stake driven
into the ground outside. Darkness found everyone in my boma on the
alert and listening anxiously to hear the noise the leopard would make
the moment he was caught in the trap. Nor were we disappointed, for
about midnight we heard the click of the powerful spring, followed
immediately by frantic roaring and plunging. I had been sitting all
evening with my rifle by my side and a lantern lighted, so I
immediately rushed out, followed by the chaukidar (watchman) carrying
the lamp. As we approached the shed, the leopard made a frantic spring
in our direction as far as the chain would allow him, and this so
frightened the chaukidar that he fled in terror, leaving me in utter
darkness. The night was as black as had been the previous one, and I
could see absolutely nothing; but I knew the general direction in which
to fire and accordingly emptied my magazine at the beast. As far as I
could make out, he kept dodging in and out through the broken wall of
the goat-house; but in a short time my shots evidently told, as his
struggles ceased and all was still. I called out that he was dead, and
at once everyone in the boma turned out, bringing all the lanterns in
the place. With the others came my Indian overseer, who shouted that he
too wanted revenge, as some of the goats had belonged to him. Whereupon
he levelled his revolver at the dead leopard, and shutting his eyes
tightly, fired four shots in rapid succession. Naturally not one of
these touched the beast, but they caused considerable consternation
amongst the onlookers, who scattered rapidly to right and left. Next
morning a party of starving Wa Kamba happened to be passing just as I
was about to skin the leopard, and asked by means of signs to be
allowed to do the job for me and then to take the meat. I of course
assented to this proposal, and in a very few minutes the skin had been
neatly taken off, and the famishing natives began a ravenous meal on
the raw flesh.
Wild dogs are also very destructive, and often caused great losses
among our sheep and goats. Many a night have I listened to these
animals hunting and harrying some poor creature of the wilds round my
camp; they never relinquish a chase, and will attack anything, man or
beast, when really driven by hunger. I was at Tsavo Station one
day--unfortunately without my rifle--when one of these dogs came up and
stood within about thirty yards of me. He was a fine-looking beast,
bigger than a collie, with jet-black hair and a white-tipped bushy
tail. I was very sorry that I had not brought my rifle, as I badly
wanted a specimen and never had another chance of obtaining one.