cu.xxv MAN-EATER IN RAILWAY CARRIAGE 283 
to the Traffic Manager: “Lion fighting with 
station. Send urgent succour.” Fortunately he 
was not victorious in his “fight with the station” ; 
but he tried so hard to get in that he cut his feet 
badly on the iron sheeting, leaving large blood- 
stains on the roof. Another night, however, he 
succeeded in carrying off the native driver of the 
pumping-engine, and soon afterwards added several 
other victims to his list. On one occasion an 
engine-driver arranged to sit up all night in a large 
iron water-tank in the hope of getting a shot at him, 
and had a loop-hole cut in the side of the tank from 
which to fire. But as so often happens, the hunter 
became the hunted; the lion turned up in the 
middle of the night, overthrew the tank and 
actually tried to drag the driver out through the 
narrow circular hole in the top through which he 
had squeezed in. Fortunately the tank was just 
too deep for the brute to be able to reach the man 
at the bottom; but the latter was naturally half 
paralysed with fear and had to crouch so low down 
as to be unable to take anything like proper aim. 
He fired, however, and succeeded in frightening 
the lion away for the time being. 
It was in a vain attempt to destroy this pest that 
poor Ryall met his tragic and untimely end. On 
June 6, 1900, he was travelling up in his inspection 
carriage from Makindu to Nairobi, accompanied by 
