First lion was dead,
as the hurrying crowds fell prostrate in the
midnight forest, laying their heads on his feet,
and the Africans danced savage and ceremonial
dances of thanksgiving, Mr. Patterson must have
realised in no common way what it was to have
been a hero and deliverer in the days when
man was not yet undisputed lord of the creation,
and might pass at any moment under the savage
dominion of the beasts."
Well had the two man-eaters earned all this
fame; they had devoured between them no less
than twenty-eight Indian coolies, in addition to
scores of unfortunate African natives of whom
no official record was kept.
CHAPTER X
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.
