Nevertheless
I Was Confident Of Getting Him In The Morning,
And Accordingly Set Out As Soon As It Was
Light.
For over a mile there was no difficulty
in following the blood-trail, and as he had
rested several times I felt sure that he had
been badly wounded.
In the end, however, my
hunt proved fruitless, for after a time the traces
of blood ceased and the surface of the ground
became rocky, so that I was no longer able
to follow the spoor.
About this time Sir Guilford Molesworth,
K.C.I.E., late Consulting Engineer to the
Government of India for State Railways, passed
through Tsavo on a tour of inspection on behalf
of the Foreign Office. After examining the
bridge and other works and expressing his
satisfaction, he took a number of photographs,
one or two of which he has kindly allowed me
to reproduce in this book. He thoroughly
sympathised with us in all the trials we had
endured from the man-eaters, and was delighted
that one at least was dead. When he asked
me if I expected to get the second lion soon,
I well remember his half-doubting smile as I
rather too confidently asserted that I hoped to
bag him also in the course of a few days.
As it happened, there was no sign of our enemy
for about ten days after this, and we began to
hope that he had died of his wounds in the bush.
All the same we still took every precaution at
night, and it was fortunate that we did so, as
otherwise at least one more victim would have
been added to the list.
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