270 
THE NEW AFRICA 
ox gave to our bearers to force him along, and as it was already 
late, we made for a flat island about two hundred yards long, 
projecting a few feet above the surface of the water, on which 
some fine trees were growing. Franz was close behind me driving 
Gonsalvus’s pack-ox carrying ammunition, when I stepped on to 
the island. The second step I made brought me almost on 
the tail of a large leopard lying in hiding in the scrub which 
fringed the island down to the water’s edge. With a bound 
and a grunt he cleared from almost beneath my feet, and took 
cover among some small bushy date palms, before I could bring, 
the gun from my shoulder to bear on him. It was very 
unpleasant to think of him, probably accompanied by a mate, as 
sleeping companions on this small island for the night, especially 
as we feared for our two sole remaining goats, Blanche and her 
mother, now grown into such intimate fellowship with us that 
the thought of killing them for food seemed like sacrilege to 
us all. 
As soon as the obstreperous ox was despatched by a shot in 
the brain, Hammar and I, leaving Franz to superintend the cut¬ 
ting up, with eight of the boys scoured the island from end to 
end over and over again, prodding into all the thickets with long 
poles, determined to get the leopard if possible. Leave the 
island without being seen the animal could not, for we were 
surrounded by a plain sheet of water; yet although we searched 
every nook and corner that could possibly shelter him, and also 
looked for holes in the earth which might afford a hiding-place, 
until darkness compelled us to desist, we could not find the 
beast. What he was doing as we approached the island at the 
outset was a question that puzzled me very much. He must 
have heard the plop, plop of our feet in the water as we came 
along, and it was hardly credible that he should have slept 
through such a commotion. Probably he had crawled to our 
landing-place in hopes of attacking the ox, quite ignoring our 
presence until startled by my nearer approach, and then fled. 
At any rate we took good care to tie our goats up amongst the 
sleeping bearers close to a large fire, and to suspend all the ox 
