h of the five of
us to lift the carcase with a great effort off the fainting Hans and
even to roll it from side to side when subsequently we removed the skin.
I would never have believed that so ancient an animal of its stature,
which could not have been more than seven feet when it stood erect,
could have been so heavy. For ancient undoubtedly it was. The long,
yellow, canine tusks were worn half-away with use; the eyes were sunken
far into the skull; the hair of the head, which I am told is generally
red or brown, was quite white, and even the bare breast, which should
be black, was grey in hue. Of course, it was impossible to say, but one
might easily have imagined that this creature was two hundred years or
more old, as the Motombo had declared it to be.

Stephen suggested that it should be skinned, and although I saw little
prospect of our being able to carry away the hide, I assented and helped
in the operation on the mere chance of saving so great a curiosity.
Also, although Brother John was restless and murmured something about
wasting time, I thought it necessary that we should have a rest after
our fearful anxieties and still more fearful encounter with this
consecrated monster. So we set to work, and as a result of more than an
hour's toil, dragged off the hide, which was so tough and thick that,
as we found, the copper spears had scarcely penetrated to the flesh.
The bullet that I had put into it on the previous night struck,
we discovered, upon the bone of the upper arm, which it shattered
sufficiently to render that limb useless, if it did not break it
altogether. This, indeed, was fortunate for us, for had the creature
retained both its arms uninjured, it would certainly have killed more
of us in its attack. We were saved only by the fact that when it was
hugging Jerry it had no limb left with which it could strike, and
luckily did not succeed in its attempts to get hold with its tremendous
jaws that had nipped off the Kalubi's hand as easily as a pair of
scissors severs the stalk of a flower.

When the skin was removed, except that of the hands, which we did not
attempt to touch, we pegged it out, raw side uppermost, to dry in the
centre of the open place where the sun struck. Then, having buried poor
Jerry in the hollow trunk of the great fallen tree, we washed ourselves
with the wet mosses and ate some of the food that remained to us.

After this we started forward again in much better spirits. Jerry