I
Pictured To Them The Cold, Wet Climate Of
England And Its Great Distance From Their Native
Land; But They Assured Me That These Were
Nothing To Them, As They Only Wished To Continue
My "Children" And To Go Wherever I Went.
I
could hardly imagine myself arriving in London
with a body-guard of four hundred more or less
naked savages, but it was only with difficulty that
I persuaded them that they had better remain in
their own country.
The ever-faithful Mahina,
my "boy" Roshan Khan, my honest chaukidar,
Meeanh, and a few other coolies who had been a
long time with me, accompanied me to the coast,
where they bade me a sorrowful farewell and left
for India the day before I sailed on my homeward
journey.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE FINDING OF THE NEW ELAND
During the early part of last year (1906) I
revisited the scene of my former labours and
adventures on a shooting trip. Unfortunately the
train by which I travelled up from Mombasa
reached Tsavo at midnight, but all the same I
got out and prowled about as long as time would
permit, half wondering every moment if the
ghosts of the two man-eaters would spring at
me out of the bushes. I wanted very much to
spend a day or two in the old place, but my
companions were anxious to push on as quickly
as possible to better hunting-grounds. I took
the trouble, however, to wake them out of their
peaceful slumbers in order to point out to them,
by the pale moonlight, the strength and beauty
of the Tsavo bridge; but I fear this delicate little
attention was scarcely appreciated as it deserved.
Naturally I could not expect them, or anyone
else, to view the bridge quite from my point of
view; I looked on it as a child of mine, brought
up through stress and danger and troubles of all
kinds, but the ordinary traveller of course knows
nothing of this and doubtless thinks it only a
very commonplace and insignificant structure
indeed.
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