CH. 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 



