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.
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