rer to the place, they saw that there were people around
the pit,--both men and women. One of the men, intensely Ethiopic in
appearance, came forward as the hunting party approached, and by signs
offered for sale the tusks of the elephant still roaring underneath
them.

"We are safe with these people," remarked Congo. "They are used to
traders, and will do us no more harm than to cheat us in a bargain, if
they can."

On arriving at the pit, our adventurers saw that it was not a square
hole with an upright stake in the centre, as Hendrik had supposed. It
was oval at the top and contracted to a point at the bottom, in the
shape of an inverted cone, leaving no level space on which the elephant
could stand. Its four feet were jammed together; and, compelled to
support the weight of its immense body in this position, the agony it
suffered must have been as intense as the creature was capable of
enduring.

This pit, the plan of which was devised with devilish ingenuity for
producing unnecessary torture, was about nine feet long and apparently
seven or eight in depth, and the struggles of the elephant only had the
effect of wedging its huge feet more closely together and increasing its
tortures.

Two pits had been dug but a short distance from one another; and the
wisdom of this plan had a living illustration before their eyes.
Although the two had been nicely concealed, and the excavated earth
carried away from the place, both had been discovered by the elephant,
but one of them too late. Had there been but one, it would not have
been caught, for it evidently had placed a foot on the first, detected
the hidden danger, and, while in the act of avoiding it, had fallen
suddenly and irrecoverably on to the other.

All the men standing around were armed, the most of them with assegais
or spears, but they were making no attempt to end the agony of the
captured elephant.

Groot Willem stepped in front of it, and was raising the long barrel of
his roer to the level of one of the elephant's eyes, when he was stopped
by two or three of the blacks, who rushed forward and restrained him
from discharging the piece.

Congo, who had professed to understand what they said, told Willem that
the elephant was not to be killed at present.

"What can be the reason of that?" exclaimed Arend. "Can they wish the
animal to live, merely for the sake of witnessing its sufferings? It
cannot be saved. It must die where it is now."

"