, it will be remembered, was sleeping on
the floor. At this moment Huebner was suddenly awakened by a loud cry,
and on looking down from his berth was horrified to see an enormous
lion standing with his hind feet on Parenti's body, while his forepaws
rested on poor Ryall. Small wonder that he was panic-stricken at the
sight. There was only one possible way of escape, and that was through
the second sliding door communicating with the servants' quarters,
which was opposite to that by which the lion had entered. But in order
to reach this door Huebner had literally to jump on to the man-eater's
back, for its great bulk filled up all the space beneath his berth. It
sounds scarcely credible, but it appears that in the excitement and
horror of the moment he actually did this, and fortunately the lion was
too busily engaged with his victim to pay any attention to him. So he
managed to reach the door in safety; but there, to his dismay, he found
that it was held fast on the other side by the terrified coolies, who
had been aroused by the disturbance caused by the lion's entrance. In
utter desperation he made frantic efforts to open it, and exerting all
his strength at last managed to pull it back sufficiently far to allow
him to squeeze through, when the trembling coolies instantly tied it up
again with their turbans. A moment afterwards a great crash was heard,
and the whole carriage lurched violently to one side; the lion had
broken through one of the windows, carrying off poor Ryall with him.
Being now released, Parenti lost no time in jumping through the window
on the opposite side of the carriage, and fled for refuge to one of the
station buildings; his escape was little short of miraculous, as the
lion had been actually standing on him as he lay on the floor. The
carriage itself was badly shattered, and the wood-work of the window
had been broken to pieces by the passage of the lion as he sprang
through with his victim in his mouth.

All that can be hoped is that poor Ryall's death was instantaneous. His
remains were found next morning about a quarter of a mile away in the
bush, and were taken to Nairobi for burial. I am glad to be able to add
that very shortly afterwards the terrible brute who was responsible for
this awful tragedy was caught in an ingenious trap constructed by one
of the railway staff. He was kept on view for several days, and then
shot.

CHAPTER XXVI

WORK AT NAIROBI

Although the lion wh