Sultan," I called to the
driver, "stop the engine."
"Now, Mac," I continued, as the train was
quickly brought to a standstill, "here's a chance
for you. Just jump off and bag those two over
there."
He turned round in blank astonishment and
could hardly believe his eyes when he saw two
fine lions only about two hundred yards off, busily
engaged in devouring a wildebeeste which they
had evidently just killed. I had spotted them
almost as soon as Mac had begun to talk of his
bad luck, and had only waited to tell him until we
got nearer, so as to give him a greater surprise.
He was off the engine in a second and made
directly for the two beasts. Just as he was about
to fire one of them bolted, so I called out to him
to shoot the other quickly before he too made
good his escape. This one was looking at us
over his shoulder with one paw on the dead
wildebeeste, and while he stood in this attitude
Mac dropped him with a bullet through the
heart. Needless to say he was tremendously
delighted with his success, and after the dead
lion had been carried to the train and propped
up against a carriage, I took a photograph of him
standing beside his fine trophy.
Three days after this incident railhead reached
Nairobi, and I was given charge of the new
division of the line. Nairobi was to be the
headquarters of the Railway Administration, so there
was an immense amount of work to be done in
converting an absolutely bare plain, three hundred
and twenty-seven miles from the nearest place
where even a nail could be purchased, into a
busy railway centre. Roads and bridges had to
be constructed, houses and work-shops built,
turntables and station quarters erected, a water supply
laid on, and a hundred and one other things done
which go to the making of a railway township.
Wonderfully soon, however, the nucleus of the
present town began to take shape, and a thriving
"bazaar" sprang into existence with a mushroom-like
growth. In this, however, a case or two of
plague broke out before very long, so I gave the
natives and Indians who inhabited it an hour's
notice to clear out, and on my own responsibility
promptly burned the whole place to the ground.
For this somewhat arbitrary proceeding I was
mildly called over the coals, as I expected; but
all the same it effectually stamped out the plague,
which did not reappear during the time I was in
the country.
With a little persuasion I managed to induce
several hundred of the Wa Kikuyu, in whose
country we now were, to come and work at
Nairobi, and very useful and capable they proved
themselves after a little training. They
frequently brought me in word that the shambas
(plantations, gardens) at the back of the hill on
which my camp was pitched were being destroyed
by elephants, but unfortunately I could never
spare time to go out in quest of them.
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