CORNERED BY BABOONS 289 



long, skinny arms down at the man until they 

 were frightened back by a swing of the rifle. 

 Almost invariably the baboons in front took 

 advantage of these feints to make another sally. 

 What with the troop on the roof and the troop 

 at the front door, the Englishman was fully 

 occupied for more than an hour. 



At last the baboons began to lose interest; 

 one by one they left the throng and began 

 hunting about in the rocks for food. Occa- 

 sionally one would come tearing back to resume 

 hostilities, but these sudden outbursts of pas- 

 sion were short-lived; soon the animal would 

 again disappear. 



A solitary old female, lacking two toes on 

 her left front foot and with the scars of many 

 battles on her face, was the last to leave. She 

 was trying to persuade the others not to give 

 up the fight; she turned and chattered to them. 

 But finally she, too, lost heart, and followed the 

 others down through the rocks and into the 

 fringe of trees to the bottom of the gully. 



When the animals were out of sight the En- 

 glishman crawled from his refuge and quickly 

 climbed to the top of the cliff. Then he mounted 

 his horse and returned to the house, thoroughly 



