Free Man-Eaters by Edgar Rice Burroughs Page B

preying on the domestic animals of men and then on the men themselves, as they discovered how slow and helpless and what easy prey man really is. But there have been instances of young, healthy lions developing a taste for human flesh. The most famous of these were the man-eaters of Tsavo, which practically stopped the building of the Uganda Railway for a time through their depredations and the terror they inspired. Lt. Col. J. H. Patterson's story of these ferocious beasts is the all-time classic of adventure tales.
    For nine months these voracious and insatiable man-eaters fed on the white officials and Indian coolies who were building the railway.
    Ungan Singh, a powerful Sikh and one of Col. Patterson's jemadars. was asleep in his tent with half a dozen of his fellows, when, about midnight, a lion suddenly put his head in at the open tent door and seized Ungan Singh by the throat. The man cried "Choro!" ("Let go!"), and threw his arms around the lion's neck. The next moment he was gone, and his panic-stricken companions lay helpless, forced to listen to the terrible struggle which took place outside.
    O'Hara was the engineer in charge of the road-making on the Uganda Railway Project. He had with him his wife and two children, one an infant. But let Mrs. O'Hara tell the story in her own words.
    "We were all asleep in the tent, my husband and I in one bed and my two children in another. The baby was feverish and restless; so I got up to give her something to drink; and as I was doing so, I heard what I thought was a
    lion walking around the tent. I at once awoke my husband and told him I felt sure there was a lion about. He jumped up and went out, taking his gun with him. He looked around the outside of the tent, and spoke to the Swahili askari who was on sentry by the camp fire a little distance off. The askari said he had seen nothing except a donkey; so my husband came in again, telling me not to worry as it was only a donkey I had heard.
    "The night being very hot, my husband threw back the tent door and lay down again beside me. After a while I dozed off, but was suddenly roused by a feeling as if the pillow were being pulled away from under my head. On looking around I found that my husband was gone.
    I jumped up and called him loudly, but got no answer. Just then I heard a noise among the boxes outside the door; so I rushed out and saw my poor husband lying between the boxes.
    I ran up to him and tried to lift him, but found I could not do so. I then called to the askari to come and help me; but he refused, saying that there was a lion standing beside me. I looked up and saw the huge beast glowering at me, not more than two yards away. A t this moment the askari fired his rifle; and this fortunately frightened the lion, for it at once jumped off into the bush.
    "All four of the askaris then came forward and lifted my husband back onto the bed. He was quite dead. We had hardly got back into the tent before the lion returned and prowled about in front of the door, showing every intention of springing in to recover his prey. The askaris fired at him, but did no damage beyond frightening him away again for a minute or two. He soon came back and continued to walk around the tent until daylight, growling and purring; and it was only by firing through the tent now and then that we kept him out. At daybreak he disappeared."
    There are numerous instances of the courage (or temerity) of man-eating lions, as well as of those that have not developed a contempt for man and along with it a taste for his flesh. Col. Patterson relates several such, among them that of a man-eater which haunted a little roadside station called Kimaa. He seemed to have a predilection for railway men; but was not particular as to whether he carried off the station master, the signalman, or the pointsman. One night, in order to get a meal, he climbed to the roof of the station building and tried to tear off the corrugated iron roof, causing the terrified