CHAPTER, XXV 
A MAN-EATER IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE 
Towarps the end of my stay in British East 
Africa, I dined one evening with Mr. Ryall, the 
Superintendent of the Police, in his inspection 
carriage on the railway. Poor Ryall! I little 
thought then what a terrible fate was to overtake 
him only a few months later in that very carriage in 
which we dined. 
A man-eating lion had taken up his quarters at a 
little roadside station called Kimaa, and had devel- 
oped an extraordinary taste for the members of the 
railway staff. He was a most daring brute, quite 
indifferent as to whether he carried off the station- 
master, the signalman, or the pointsman ; and one 
night, in his efforts to obtain a meal, he actually 
climbed up on to the roof of the station buildings 
and tried to tear off the corrugated-iron sheets. At 
this the terrified dad00 in charge of the telegraph 
instrument below sent the following laconic message 
