Rogala told all that had taken place, how his master Rotembo had given him to me, that I was a great hunter, and that I came to hunt with them.
Shinshooko and Alapai and their families listened in profound silence to the wonderful story of Rogala, and when he had finished it was the turn of Shinshooko and Alapai to tell what had happened during the absence of Rogala. Shinshooko was the speaker, and began thus: "Leopards have made their appearance in the neighborhood since you left, Rogala. What has brought the leopards so suddenly into our neighborhood we cannot tell, but it must be that the bashikouay ants have invaded and scoured a great part of the forest and driven them away, and they have fled towards us. We have seen many tracks of their big paws. We must look out for these leopards and make traps and catch them and hunt them. Fortunately our goat-house is so strong and so secure that leopards cannot break through. But we must do all we can to kill them, for fear that some one of them might be a man-eater and devour some of us or some of our children."
That night numerous fires were lighted to scare away the leopards. I went into my little hut, but kept awake with "Bulldog" by my side, for I thought a leopard might easily come through the thin roof of palm leaves over my head. We all hoped that there was no man-eater among the leopards, for if there were we were sure that he would lie in wait for some one. When once they have tasted human flesh, they like it better than anything else. But no leopard paid us a visit during the night.
CHAPTER V
WE BUILD A LEOPARD TRAP—A NIGHT ON THE WATCH—THE BEAST APPEARS AT LAST—CAUGHT IN THE TRAP AND SOON DESPATCHED—HER MATE KILLED THE FOLLOWING NIGHT—EXCITEMENT OF ANDEKKO AND NDOVA
Early the next morning the men went into the forest to cut poles, and after we had a sufficient number we built a trap to catch the leopard.
We constructed the trap in the following manner according to the plan of Shinshooko, who had the reputation of great skill and ingenuity in making all sorts of traps.
We built with the poles a long narrow funnel-like alley, which became gradually smaller and smaller towards the end, so that it was impossible for the leopard to go entirely through. At the entrance Shinshooko constructed a trap-door which was to fall after the leopard was fairly in. The end of this funnel-like structure communicated with the goat-house, which we surrounded with a double row of poles, so that the leopard could not get through. The roof was made entirely of poles strongly fastened together. The structure was about twenty feet long.