no hints, samuel.
you're right. the devil has come. look at me. i am the devil.
am i to take it you want to live?
excellent decision. your name is abdullah? i'm sure we'll meet again. go and enjoy the splendid morning.
you got old. i'm sure you're john patterson. stay out of my way.
what did i do?
nonsense- samuel would have done something.
let me save time- you are the engineer; you are in charge; you're sorry i'm here. right so far? good- because i am not an engineer, i don't want to be in charge, and i'm sorrier than you are that i'm here- i hate tsavo. so i will help you by killing the lions and leaving, and you will help me by doing what i tell you so i can leave. see any problems?
all right- let's go into battle. i'm redbeard.
starting now, we attack them.
we'll have to make them come to us, won't we? and since there are two of them, we're going to set two plans in motion. first: we must move the entire hospital by tomorrow night.
-is it, i'm sorry, but then, of course, you're the doctor, you should know.
i suppose i could answer you. i suppose i could explain that the place is so inviting, what with the smell of blood and flesh, that they have to strike. it's even possible that i tell you i found some fresh paw marks around back which means they're already contemplating feasting here. but i don't want to answer you because when you question me you are really saying that i don't have the least idea what i am doing, that i am nothing but an incompetent, that i am a fool. anyone who finds me a fool, please say so now.
then we agree.
i don't really. but understand something- even though it may take me two or three days to sort this out- -when i'm gone, you'll still have to build the bridge. and i don't want the men to have lost respect for you.
i'm always considerate- my mother taught me that.
why do you laugh?- you don't believe she taught me?
four should do it.
no, but you do- -see, you were needed after all. and fifty warriors at the camp before dawn.
because i have two plans to kill the lions- one involving the cattle, the other the men.
two lions are all that have come.  they're only lions, that i know. and i will kill them both tomorrow.
i have a gift.
i spotted one of them- -in there.
the best way to ensure the kill when you're using trackers is for one to shoot while the other uses the trackers to force the lion toward the shooter. have you ever led trackers?
samuel says you killed a lion.
you'd never force the lion to me- and nobody ever got a lion with one shot by luck. around there's a clearing- you'll know it from the anthills- get there and hide and listen to the sounds- i'll make the lion come directly to you.
-all of you- spread the width of the clearing- no gaps- go-
shoot for chrissakes!-
not even close. what happened?
has it ever done that before?
you exchanged weapons? you went into battle with an untried gun?
they have an expression in prizefighting: "everyone has a plan until they're hit." you've just been hit.  . the getting up is up to you.
gentlemen, there's no sickness smell at all here, and little blood. when we leave, close the gate securely, don't open it til morning and keep your fires high. any questions, ask them now. you two will sleep beautifully in your tents. and stay there.
patterson and i will be in the old hospital- where the enticing smell of sickness still lingers- -and by the time we're done, i promise you, the odor of blood will be irresistible.
think about something else.
only in life.
it's all right. stay ready. they know it's there.
meant to ask you- the railroad car trap. your idea? excellent notion- i used the same device myself once.
in point of fact it didn't- but i'm convinced the idea is sound.
it would have been a beautiful bridge, john. i never noticed before, occupied with other business, i suppose.  . never really pay much attention to that kind of thing but i've had the time today, nothing else on, and this.  it's graceful and the placement couldn't be prettier.  and.
in my town, when i was little, there was a brute, a bully who terrorized the place. but he was not the problem. he had a brother who was worse than he. but the brother was not the problem. one or the other of them was usually in jail. the problem came when they were both free togther. the two became different from either alone. alone they were only brutes. together they became lethal, together they killed.
i got big.
dear god-
nobody's seen anything like this. lions don't have caves like this- -they're doing it for pleasure.
one of my chief attributes is that i'm always calm.
don't they have to be?.
not for me- i'm too bulky and it's your idea, you go up there. take the others to the water tower for the night.
yes. and i'll be in some distant tree where i can provide no assistance whatsoever. can you control your fear?
i can't control mine- i'd be lost without the shame factor driving me.
it's certainly the best chance they've had to kill you.
good luck.
because i think they're after you.
the most of any lions.  a hundred? probably more. johnny?
don't fuck up.
-undeniably your triumph.
understood- you realize now you could never have done it without me.
some russian princes want to hunt the himalayas. you?
too soon to tell.
my life was shaped because someone invented gunpowder. our lives have crossed because two lions went mad. but what if in the future the three of us do something grand for humanity? was that worth all the lives? too soon to tell.
hold your son high.