09 Lion Adventure Read Online Free Page B

man-eater to be reckoned with. It tried to get into the station where some men were sleeping, but the doors were too strong. It climbed up on the roof and tore away the corrugated iron sheets - it made a hole and dropped through. The men decided in a hurry that it was safer outside than in. They ran out, the lion after them.’
    ‘One man hid in a water-tank. The lion upset the tank, pulled the unlucky fellow out, and ate him.’
    ‘Then a very important man, Superintendent Ryall of the Railway Police, arrived in his own private railway car. He was a good shot and he knew it. He thought he could do in a day what Colonel Patterson had failed to do in nine months. Just give him one chance at that man-eater.’
    ‘He got his chance. He had his car shunted to a siding, and with two friends, Hubner and Parenti, prepared to wait all night for the lion. If they heard him grunting around, they would just go out and kill him. It would be as simple as that.’
    ‘One would keep watch while the other two slept. Ryall took the first watch, but he fell asleep. Hubner suddenly woke and found to his horror that the lion was inside the car. It had pushed open the sliding door and jumped in. The door slid back and closed.’
    ‘The lion leaped up on Ryall’s bed, struck the sleeping man’s head with his paw, sank its teeth into his chest, and that was the end of Ryall. The lion dragged the body off on to the floor and in doing so he disturbed Parenti, who woke to find a quarter of a ton of lion on top of him.’
    ‘Hubner jumped over the lion and got to the door. He couldn’t open it. The reason was that men who had been roused by the commotion were holding it shut so that the lion would not escape into the camp.’
    ‘It must have been a bad shock for those two fellows to find themselves shut in with a man-eating lion. Hubner groped for his gun, but before he could find it there was a terrific crash - the lion had broken through a window taking Ryall’s body with him.’
    ‘The next day a search was made for the police officer’s body. Nothing was found but his boots.’
    ‘It was Colonel Patterson after all, the man who was not a good shot, who finally potted the second’ man-eater. The animal tried to get at some men sleeping in a tree. The next night Patterson was up in that tree. The lion came, tried to climb the tree, and was shot. He roared off into the bushes. In the morning Patterson went looking for him.’
    ‘He saw what looked like a dead lion - but the “dead lion” suddenly came to life and charged him.’
    ‘The beast was too weak from loss of blood to finish the charge. He died only five yards from Patterson’s feet.’
    ‘Those two lions alone had killed more than a hundred men including twenty-nine Indians and two Europeans. The story was told and retold hundreds of times in newspapers and magazines all over the world. The two skins were mounted and put on view in the Field Museum and if you ever go to Chicago you can see them there.’
     
    ‘But you haven’t answered my question,’ Roger said. ‘Those lions are dead. But still we have man-eaters here. Why is that?’
    ‘For a very simple reason. The man-eaters of Tsavo often brought their cubs along and taught them how to hunt man and enjoy human flesh. Those cubs when they grew up taught their cubs. And so it goes on.’ ‘Why doesn’t it happen in other places too?’ ‘It does. Lions are the greatest man-killers in Africa. Not long ago in Malawi fourteen persons were eaten by lions in a month; in Mozambique, twenty in one month; in Ankole over in Uganda a dozen lions went on the rampage and it took eighteen months to kill them off. Near Entebbe the wise old lions discovered that whenever elephants raided plantations the people would come out to drive them away and in the confusion the lions could easily grab a few victims. Seventeen lions had to be killed before the people were safe. In Sanga a single lion killed forty-four people and another