midday
Chulk eyed the pouch , which , suspended over Mugambi 's shoulder , swung beside his black hip . This took his fancy , for it was ornamented with feathers and a fringe , and so the ape hung about Mugambi 's boma , waiting an opportunity to seize either by stealth or might some object of the black 's apparel . Nor was it long before the opportunity came . Feeling safe within his thorny enclosure , Mugambi was wont to stretch himself in the shade of his shelter during the heat of the day , and sleep in peaceful security until the declining sun carried with it the enervating temperature of midday . Watching from above , Chulk saw the black warrior stretched thus in the unconsciousness of sleep one sultry afternoon . Creeping out upon an overhanging branch the anthropoid dropped to the ground within the boma . He approached the sleeper upon padded feet which gave forth no sound , and with an uncanny woodcraft that rustled not a leaf or a grass blade .