alley until it should
be destroyed, it was agreed by all that it would be more prudent to
leave it undisturbed until some more favourable opportunity occurred for
effecting its destruction.

For these various reasons they resolved to remain quiet in the tree, and
patiently await the termination of that curious "ring performance,"
which the old tusker still continued to keep up.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

AN ODD APPEARANCE.

For the full length of another hour did the trio in the tree have their
patience tested. During all that time the "rogue" remained upon the
ground, continuing his perambulations around the rock--until he had
trodden out a path that resembled the arena of a circus at the close of
a night's performance.

It is not necessary to say that the time hung heavily upon the hands of
the spectators--to say nothing of Fritz, who would no doubt have been
satisfied with a much shorter programme.

As regards the former, the hour might have been spent less pleasantly
than it was; for it so chanced that an _interlude_ was introduced, of so
interesting a character to all, but more especially to the naturalist
Karl, that for a while the proximity of their savage besieger was
forgotten, and they scarcely remembered that they were besieged.

Favoured by the accident of their situation, they became spectators of a
scene--one of those scenes only to be viewed amid the wild solitudes of
Nature.

Not far from the tree on which they had found shelter, stood another of
equal dimensions, but of an entirely different species. It was a
sycamore, as even Caspar, without any botanical skill, could testify.
Its smooth bark, piebald with white and green spots, its
widely-straggling limbs and leaves, left no doubt about its being one.
It was the sycamore, identical with its European congener, the _Platanus
orientalis_.

It is the habit of this fine tree to become hollow. Not only does the
lower part of its trunk exhibit the phenomenon of great cavities, but
holes are found high up in its main shaft or in the larger limbs.

The tree in question stood within a few yards of that on which Karl,
Caspar, and Ossaroo were perched. It was just before their eyes,
whenever they looked in a horizontal direction; and occasionally, when
tired with watching the monotonous movements of the elephant, one or
other of them _did_ look horizontally. The scanty foliage upon the
sycamore enabled them to see its trunk and most of its larger l