Another thing that was left at the office was a letter telling George he had to return to the neighbouring village once again. So, he took the Great North Road back towards the village. The journey of about 147miles would take over 4 hours. George, who was heading back to the village however decided that perhaps only to satisfy his own curiosity, he would pay a visit to the deposed chief on his way. The village where the deposed chief lived, a place called Iyayi, was on the way back and the local hunters had pointed out the chief's house times before when they passed the village. George parked his truck and walked over to the house. He called out a greeting and the chief came out to meet him. He was about forty years, muscular and clean shaven. He wore a white kanzu-a type of gown. George told him that he was a game ranger and tried to bring up what he was doing but it was difficult to do. The chief was calm and polite, but also very sharp and easily redirected the conversation and avoided the more morose topics.
After a little while of more small talk George decided to be on his way, he turned to leave but, before you walked away, he mentioned, as casually as he could "the lions wouldn't be at large for much longer, four had already been killed". The chief smiled at him and gave a one-word response, "perhaps".
When George returned, he received some troubling news, he was getting holiday. The village civil servants had been granted six months leave and were to board the British Indian liner and sail back to Britain. His wife, Eleanor, had already started packing and the young children were doing the same. George and Eleanor also had older children in boarding school in Brittain that they hadn't seen in eight years. Though it was a difficult decision, George decided he would take the leave and hope his temporary replacement, a man named Twiga Rogers would do something about the lion in his absence.
When he returned six months later one more lion had been taken out. But twiga informed George that the lions had continued the killings at more or less the same extent. Even though George is back in the reigns he still had to take care of a few other duties before he could get back to the lions. He had to inspect the game proof fence and there was also another problem at lake Rukwa. Parts of the lake had dried up and a number of hippos were drying and suffering and slowly dying, and the only thing he could think to do was to take as many of them out of their misery.
Two weeks later he was back in the village where the man-eaters were the most active. George told his wife he's going to stay in the village this time until he was finished with the lions. He left her and the younger children where they were safer, happy that they were safe and far away from the lions.
When he arrived, he spoke to the chief and discovered that the attacks were down, but nineteen people have been eaten since George's departure. Another thing that the chief told him that there is still a lot of pressure to restore the deposed-chief back to his post.
George decided he was going to camp in the area with one of his scouts, he went to visit the little girl who had helped him before. He brought some sweets back from England to give her as a reward but when he asked the villagers where she was, they informed him the lions had gotten her four days earlier.
The next day George started his hunt with his scouts, eager to get revenge. By the third day the two men found a trail of a pride of lions heading north, they followed quickly. They caught up with the lions around midday; They had a new plan instead of concentrating fire on a single lion they would choose a separate lion and shoot as many as they could, they shot two and wounded one more that escaped.
Then another distraction, George had to leave and investigate the death of a foreman named Marshall, who was trampled by an elephant. The investigation as well as other administrative duties took George back to the village where he had kept his wife. He was not able to return until November. However, some lions had been killed in his absence. Three more man-eaters had been killed bringing the total up to eight man-eaters killed and it seemed to be having an effect. According to the chief, the amount of people eaten in a week had halved. George looked at the map of the most recent attacks and drove out west hoping to cut them while off. He stayed in the village called Halani. Before dawn he headed east on foot hoping he would head into the lions coming from the west. After searching for six hours with no results he returned to the village, in his absence there has been an attack. Somehow the lions had gotten around him, and they had taken and eaten an elderly man.
Two local villagers agreed to help him track and hunt lions including a sixteen-year-old boy armed with this spear. It seemed people were more willing to bring the fight to the lions recently. The teenage boy was also the best tracker George had ever seen, and they were soon on the trail of the lions. The trail took them through thick bush and tall grass where they could not even see in front of them, but they continued on, until they heard a noise. A very slight noise, that could have been any animal, even just a small bird but George motioned for two locals behind him and led with his rifle. He pushed through the foliage, crawling on his hands and knees until he stopped. Less than five yards in front of him was a massive lioness, lying with her paws stretched out staring right back at him. Maybe she was shocked or too full or simply curious but for whatever reason she didn't move, and George seized the opportunity to shoot her in the head. He stood up to reload and as he did, he saw another bigger lioness running towards him. As she leaps through the air, he shot at her and she fell growling. George knelt down to reload his gun; He turn around saw one of the men had fled but the younger was still there. The female lion was growing in pain, but she didn't seem to be moving anymore, however there were other movements in the grass, and he thought there were other lions around.
Unable to see them he stayed still and waited for fifteen minutes when the lioness became silent. He had no idea where the other lions were or how close they were; He took a moment to light his pipe to calm his nerves. Then after a little more time and passed he move towards the position where she had gone down, going ever so slowly. Then a slight noise…He turned, and a big male had crept right up on him, less than a few feet from him the shock and fear caused George to freeze as the lion roared at him but then it turned and ran off. George was still again, trying to calm down but then followed a trail of blood with the boy and found the lioness. She was still breathing but otherwise lying still; The young man asked if he could stab her in the heart with the spear when George asked why he discovered the elderly man had been eaten at the village was the boy's father. "Make it quick" he said. He spent a few more days trying to hunt the lions in the area, hoping to encounter the big male that had frightened him so much.
After a few days you had to return to his office. On his drive back he passed through the town of the Iyayi and saw the deposed-chief standing outside his hut, George stopped to talk with him. "Two more have been killed" he told him "That makes a total of 10". He seemed slightly amused and responded with "You have hunted very well; it will be interesting to see how this all ends". George still didn't think the deposed chief had any control over the lions, be it supernatural or otherwise but it did puzzle him how they had learnt to hunt and avoid being hunted so well, as well as their odd diets. Why were they so different from normal lions?
In the other village, George had received orders to stop the anti-viral operations on the border and he was glad, it was a pretty grim task to kill thousands and thousands of animals that wandered within a few miles of the fence. He also heard news of other man-eating lions in the neighbouring district at the far north. There was also talk of lion men, well not just talk, there was a trial taking place and a confession.