114 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
cause of the disturbance. | naturally thought that 
the intruder was one of the ‘‘demons,” but all I 
could do was to fire several shots in the direction of 
the hut, hoping to frighten him away. In spite of 
these, however, it was some time before the noise 
died down and everything became still again. As 
soon as it was dawn I[ went to the shed to see what 
had happened, and there, to my intense anger, I 
found every one of my sheep and goats lying 
stretched dead on the ground with its throat bitten 
through. <A hole had been made through the frail 
wall of the shed, and I saw from this and from the 
tracks all round that the author of the wholesale 
slaughter had been a leopard. He had not eaten 
one of the flock, but had killed them all out of pure 
love of destruction. 
I hoped that he would return the next night to 
make a meal; and should he do so, I determined to 
have my revenge. I accordingly left the carcases 
exactly as they lay, and having a very powerful 
steel trap—like an enormous rat-trap, and quite 
strong enough to hold a leopard if he should put 
his foot in it—I placed this in the opening into the 
shed and secured it by a stout chain to a long stake 
driven into the ground outside. Darkness found 
everyone in my doma on the alert and listening 
anxiously to hear the noise the leopard would make 
the moment he was caught in the trap. Nor were 
