stake had
been committed in hanging the meat too low. The hyenas might easily get
at it.

This was soon made manifest; for, even at the moment while they stood
watching the red festoons, plainly visible under the light of Swartboy's
fires, a shaggy spotted brute rushed forward, reared up on his
hind-legs, seized one of the pieces, dragged it down from the pole, and
then ran off with it into the darkness.

A rushing sound could be heard as the others joined him to get a share
of his plunder; and, no doubt, in less than half a minute the morsel was
consumed; for, at the end of that time, glancing eyes and gleaming teeth
showed that the whole troop was back again and ready to make a fresh
seizure.

None of the hunters had fired, as the nimbleness with which the brutes
moved about rendered it difficult to take aim at any one of them; and
all knew that powder and lead were too precious to be wasted on a
"flying shot."

Emboldened by their success, the hyenas had now drawn nearer, and in a
moment more would have made a general charge upon the scaffolds of
flesh, and, no doubt, would have succeeded in carrying off a large
quantity of it. But just then it occurred to Von Bloom that it would be
best to lay aside their guns and remedy the mistake they had made, by
putting the biltongue out of reach. If they did not do so, they would
either have to remain awake all night and guard it, or else lose every
string of it.

How was it to be put out of reach?

At first they thought of collecting it into a heap and stowing it away
in the wagon. That would not only be an unpleasant job, but it would
interfere with their sleeping quarters.

An alternative, however, presented itself. They saw that if the
scaffolds were only high enough, the meat might be easily hung so as to
be out of reach of the hyenas. The only question was, how to place the
cross-poles a little higher. In the darkness they could not obtain a new
set of uprights, and therein lay the difficulty. How were they to get
over it?

Hans had the credit of suggesting a way; and that was to take out some
of the uprights, splice them to the others, with the forked ends
uppermost, and then rest the horizontal poles on the upper forks. That
would give a scaffold tall enough to hang the meat beyond the reach of
either jackals or hyenas.

Hans' suggestion was at once adopted. Half of the uprights were taken up
and spliced against the others so as to raise their forks full t