Heaven.
We did all that was possible for him, and Spooner
especially could not have looked after a brother
more tenderly; but to our great sorrow he sank
gradually, and died on July 19.
The hunt which had such a disastrous sequel
proved to be the last occasion on which I met a
lion in the open, as we got out of the hunting
country shortly afterwards and for the rest of
my stay in East Africa I had too much work
to do to be able to go any distance in search of
big game.
CHAPTER XXV
A MAN-EATER IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE
Towards 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
developed 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.
