09 Lion Adventure Read Online Free Page A

open for the lion to escape. There the colonel posted himself so that he could pot the lion when it came out of the brush.
    ‘When he was all ready the men beat their tin pans together and the frightened lion came running through the brush. The colonel pulled the trigger but the gun only clicked. A misfire. Before he could use the other barrel the lion got away.’
    ‘The colonel didn’t get much help from his men because they believed the lions were really devils and could not be killed.’
    The lions did show devilish intelligence. The colonel had strychnine put in the corpses of two men and laid them out in the bush. The lions were heard prowling about during the night but in the morning the bodies were still there, untouched. But two more men were missing from the camp.’
    ‘More than a thousand of the men went on strike. They leaped on a train bound for Mombasa.
    The men who were left built shelters for themselves up on tanks or roofs or in trees. Some dug pits under their tents, covered the pits with logs, and slept down in the hole. Surely there they would be safe. But the lions pulled aside the logs, leaped down into the pits, and dragged out the men.’
    ‘They didn’t take the trouble to pull them off into the brush but ate them just outside the tents in spite of a hail of bullets.’
    ‘So many men climbed one tree that it fell on a man-eater, pinning him to the ground, but before they could call the colonel with his gun the lion wriggled loose and disappeared.’
    ‘Two experienced hunters came down from Nairobi. They had shot plenty of lions and were sure they could get these two devils. As soon as they stepped from the train a lion leaped upon one of them, knocked him down, and proceeded to eat him. When the other hunter attempted to interfere the lion jumped on his back and ripped it to shreds. The hunter was taken to the hospital. He never did shoot that lion.’
    ‘One night a dead donkey was put out where the lions could easily get at it. The colonel had a hunting platform —they call it a machan - put up about ten feet from the body. The machan was twelve feet high and consisted of four poles stuck into the ground and supporting a plank that served as a seat.’
    ‘The colonel perched up on this seat, gun in hand. A little after midnight he heard a sigh - a lion often sighs when he is hungry. The rustling in the dark told the colonel that the beast was close to the donkey. The colonel tried to keep quiet - but as he raised his gun it bumped against the plank and the lion at once left the donkey and began circling around the man.’
    ‘For two hours the horrified colonel heard the beast creeping round and round in the darkness, gradually coming closer. At any moment he expected the lion to rush the machan and perhaps break one of the flimsy poles and bring the whole thing to the ground.’
    ‘Suddenly something came flop against the back of the colonel’s head. He was so terrified that he nearly fell off the plank. He thought the lion had leaped upon him from behind. Then he realized it had only been an owl which had perhaps mistaken him for the branch of a tree.
    His sudden movement when the owl struck him made the plank creak. The lion heard the sound and came growling up to the machan. There was just enough dawn light so that Colonel Patterson could see the dark form against the whitish undergrowth.’
    ‘He took careful aim and fired. The lion let out a terrific roar and began leaping about in all directions. The roars died down to groans and the groans to deep sighs - then nothing.’
    ‘Men from the camp a quarter of a mile away came running and when they saw that the “devil” was dead they beat tom-toms and blew horns and threw themselves down on the ground before Colonel Patterson crying, “Mabarak! Mabarak!” It means “Blessed One” or “Saviour”. They were sure the colonel must be some sort of god to have conquered this devil.’
    ‘But there was still the other