The meal was interspersed with questionings, in the course of which the men learned much and gained marked respect for Bomba’s courage and self-reliance. They were aghast at his story of the way he had trapped the cooanaradi, and would not have believed it had not the simple way that Bomba told it carried conviction. He did not boast, merely narrated the incident as though it were not of any particular importance and simply a part of the day’s work in the jungle.