I wondered if it could be a leopard, or some small member of the cat tribe.

I knew that it wasn't a dog, for there were no dogs anywhere in the vicinity of the camp.

As the minutes went by without any hostile move from the darkness, I decided to let whatever it was stay until it got ready to depart.

So I went to sleep.
Once more in the night I was awakened by a noise in the tent and as nearly as I could diagnose the situation, the noise came from under my cot.

But, I reasoned, if the animal is there, it's behaving itself and if it were on mischief bent it would have transacted its business long before.