"Some poor brute of a farmer, who's been working on his cassava ground, being pulled down by a leopard. There, don't get up; you can't do anything. Don't you hear he's quiet now, which means 'palaver set' as far as the farmer is concerned. That will make the rest of his agricultural neighbors careful for the next twenty-four hours, and go to their work in pairs, and take their spears. At the end of twenty-four hours their massive memories will fail them and they'll stroll out alone just as the spirit moves them, and someone else will be chopped. Those squeals used to make one feel rather sick at first, and one was apt to get excited and rush out with a gun. But it never did any good. Spotted Dick always prefers to dine in privacy and drags his mutton back into the bush. I can imagine," Slade added with a faint laugh, "that an energetic man who was a bit of a sportsman would find this place pretty exasperating. Thanks to these careless animals of villagers ground-baiting the creatures to the extent they have done, there's the best stocked leopard-cover in Africa round here, but you simply can't get them up to the gun. I've tried sitting up for them over a kill, I've tried stalking, and always got nothing. I risked a drive one day and the leopard chopped a couple of beaters. It would be exasperating to an energetic man, but thank goodness I'm not that, and so I've simply taken things as they came."
"H'm," said Smith thoughtfully. "When we walked in here I noticed I limped on one side and you limped on the other. We sort of jabbed at one another, in and out. Now, limping is a new accomplishment for you. Have you been interviewing a leopard personally?'"'
Slade's sallow face flushed a little. "Well, you see, a son of the headman here took it into his silly head to get in a leopard's way one day, and I knew the old chap was awfully fond of the lad. So I just retrieved him, and we both got a bit clawed in the process. But it was purely a matter of business for K. O'Neill. The old goat of a headman wouldn't listen to any suggestion for buying rubber lands before. Dash it all, Smith, I am slack, I know, but I do try and put in a bit of work for the firm in return for my pay sometimes."
CHAPTER XI
AGAIN PRESENTS THE HEAD OF THE FIRM
"Fire's the only thing we have to be frightened of for the present," said Carter, "and this soft, soggy wet timber of which the fort is built wouldn't burn without a lot of persuasion. Still, all the same I wish I could think of something that would make it absolutely fireproof."
"The ancients," said Miss O'Neill, "used to cover their works with raw bull's hide to ward off fire arrows. That wise remark comes from some school-book, but I've forgotten where. Laura can quote?"
"No," said Laura shortly.
"Not having bulls," said Carter, "we can't have their hide, but I'll just let word ooze out that if the Okky-men attack, we'll skin those we bag and nail up their pelts——"
"Mr. Carter!"