I Had Not
Gone Very Far When I Came Upon A Big Bay
Scooped Out Of The Bank By The Stream When In
Flood And Carpeted With A Deposit Of Fine, Soft
Sand, In Which Were The Indistinct Tracks Of
Numberless Animals.
In one corner of this bay,
close under an overhanging tree, stood a little
sandy hillock, and on looking over the top of
this I saw on the other side a fearsome-looking
cave which seemed to run back for a considerable
distance under the rocky bank.
Round the
entrance and inside the cavern I was
thunderstruck to find a number of human bones, with
here and there a copper bangle such as the natives
wear. Beyond all doubt, the man-eaters' den!
In this manner, and quite by accident, I stumbled
upon the lair of these once-dreaded "demons",
which I had spent so many days searching
for through the exasperating and interminable
jungle during the time when they terrorised
Tsavo. I had no inclination to explore the
gloomy depths of the interior, but thinking that
there might possibly still be a lioness or cub
inside, I fired a shot or two into the cavern
through a hole in the roof. Save for a swarm of
bats, nothing came out; and after taking a
photograph of the cave, I gladly left the horrible
spot, thankful that the savage and insatiable
brutes which once inhabited it were no longer at
large.
Retracing my steps to the main ravine, I
continued my journey along it.
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