136 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
ground and planting a stick in the middle, I ex- 
plained what we were to do and how we were to do 
it. Then I told them how we had cut the creepers 
and prepared the trees. 
During the next four days we avoided the loca- 
tion as much as possible. Crews of men, bearing 
bundles of dry grass and bushes, approached within 
five hundred feet, dropped their bundles and re- 
turned to the village. The grass and bushes were 
to be used for the fire I planned to build at the base 
of the tree, once the orang-outangs were isolated 
there. We took care never to go near when the big 
fellows were at home, and the other jungle crea- 
tures grew less and less perturbed each time we 
appeared. 
I remained at the kampong, supervising the 
making of the nets and cages. The entire popula- 
tion helped us, and I put some of the people to work 
at making smaller cages and rigging snares for 
other animals. Finally, when the nets and cages 
were ready and the material for the fire gathered 
and in place, I began drilling the men in their parts. 
Thirty men were detailed to the work of pulling 
down the trees in the circle; ten men to clearing 
the space where the big tree was to fall; and ten 
men to handling each side of the big net. It was 
upon the last-named crew that the success of the 
attack rested, for any mistake or delay in manipu- 
lating the net would mean that the animals would 
escape—even probably with disastrous results. 
