cate his plan, to which his
master--remembering their failure of yesterday--readily gave his
consent.

Fortunately they had all the implements that would be necessary for
carrying it out,--a sharp axe, a strong rope or "rheim" of raw-hide, and
their knives--and they set about the business without loss of time.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MAKING THE ELEPHANT'S BED.

To the hunters time was a consideration. If the elephant should return
that day it would be just before the hottest hours of noon. They had,
therefore, scarce an hour left to prepare for him--to "make his bed," as
Swartboy had jocosely termed it. So they went to work with alacrity, the
Bushman acting as director-general, while the other two received their
orders from him with the utmost obedience.

The first work which Swartboy assigned to them was to cut and prepare
three stakes of hard wood. They were to be each about three feet long,
as thick as a man's arm, and pointed at one end.

These were soon procured. The iron-wood which grew in abundance in the
neighbourhood, furnished the very material; and after three pieces of
sufficient length had been cut down with the axe, they were reduced to
the proper size, and pointed by the knives of the hunters.

Meanwhile Swartboy had not been idle. First, with his knife he had cut a
large section of bark from the elephant's tree, upon the side against
which the animal had been in the habit of leaning, and about three feet
from the ground. Then with the axe he made a deep notch, where the bark
had been removed--in fact, such a notch as would have caused the tree to
fall had it been left to itself. But it was not, for before advancing so
far in his work, Swartboy had taken measures to prevent that. He had
stayed the tree by fastening the rheim to its upper branches on the
opposite side, and then carrying the rope to the limbs of another tree
that stood out in that direction.

Thus adjusted, the elephant's tree was only kept from falling by the
rheim-stay; and a slight push, in the direction of the latter, would
have thrown it over.

Swartboy now replaced the section of bark, which he had preserved; and
after carefully collecting the chips, no one, without close examination,
could have told that the tree had ever felt the edge of an axe.

Another operation yet remained to be performed--that was the planting
of the stakes, already prepared by Von Bloom and Hendrik. To set these
firmly, deep holes had to be made.