or
fowl. He detected neither out of the few dozen unspeakable stenches, but
struck meat, and following it up-wind, arrived at a piece--a good big
piece--on the ground among grass.

A civet cat--who is more civet than cat, by the way--a small spotted
genet--who looked like an exaggerated ferret in the uncertain gloom--and
the inevitable black-backed jackal--who must not be confused with him of
the side-stripes--faded out at his approach like steam in a dry
atmosphere. He might have felt proud of this silent respect, if it were
not a fact that these gentry, these village frontier haunters, scenting
danger, thought it a fine "kink" to let the brave one test it first.

And he did.

To be exact, that ratel touched off the tooth-jawed trap that was the
reason for that free meal of high and valuable meat in that place, and
when he jumped he didn't get anywhere. Also, it hurt his leg abominably.

Then the others reincarnated themselves out of the shadows--especially
the jackal, who shouted "Yaaaa-ya-ya-ya!" and called a friend--and waited
for things to happen. They were confident things would happen, for
Africa is not a good place wherein to get caught in a trap--_there is too
much likelihood of being mistaken for the bait_!

But they might as well have seen a thunder "portent" captured by the tail
as this ratel by the leg; for, instead of instantly and foolishly
abandoning himself to the frenzy of unthinkable fear--the fear of being
trapped is the greatest of all to a free, wild thing--as practically all
others would have done, he said nothing at all; he failed to lose his
head; and, to crown all, he instantly, coolly, slowly, viciously, and
doggedly set himself to struggle, with a grim persistence that was
amazing. And, moreover, from that instant he never left off.

A striped hyena, seemingly in lifelong terror of his own shadow, turned
up by magic--or perhaps he heard the snap of the trap. Seven times he
bolted, for no earthly reason that one could see, before finally gaining
courage to snap at the ratel at the very end of his reach. It was the
kind of snap that would take half a man's face away, and not nice to meet
when you are trapped. The ratel, however, came calmly at the hyena, trap
and all, and so nearly got his own trap-jaws locked home on the unclean
one that the hyena was glad to go away.

In the end, thanks to the amazing toughness of his skin, and its
looseness, the ratel managed to, as it were, s