Chapter 28 Summary

Nhamo is having a more and more difficult time finding food, and she is fatigued and listless because of it. She tries to work on her boat, but she can hardly keep her head up. On one trip with the baboons, she discovers a cave and mulberry trees. The cave appears to belong to some sort of animal; she guesses a caracal.

Later, however, as she finds a dead antelope clearly killed by some animal, she deduces that the predator is a leopard, and she believes the leopard is the occupant of the cave. Even though there is no way she can fight a leopard, she hopes the animal has eaten its fill for now and is asleep. Nhamo risks stealing some of the meat and returns to her platform to smoke it and roast some. The baboons can smell the meat, and...