lofty cameleopard, and had frequently
gathered tusks from their elephants slain in fair fight. Yet with these
men the excitement had not worn off; and they, one and all, seemed to be
endowed with additional life-power as they recognised with the
`far-seer' the largest of African game browsing calmly in his native
wilderness. "We must not show ourselves," said Hans, "or the alarm will
spread. See those ostriches in the `open;' they suspect us; and though
they are two miles off, they can distinguish us among these thorns. Let
us lie down, and we will make our plans for attacking those elephants."

The whole party at once sank to the ground, and were thus completely
concealed from the keen sight of all except the vultures, which were
sailing about overhead. Each of the hunters then took a careful survey
of the nature of the ground between his position and the river near
which the elephants were browsing. After an interval of a few minutes,
one of the eldest men asked the rest what plan they had made.

"You speak first, Piet," was the answer of Hans; "then we will all give
our opinions."

"I think," said Piet, "we should go down to the right, enter that bush,
and so keep near the stream till we stalk on to the elephants; for the
ground is very good where they are, and they will not move far whilst
they can feed there."

Nearly every one agreed with this remark except Hans, who, when his
opinion was asked, said that he had two reasons why he should prefer
another plan. First, the wind would not quite suit, but would blow from
them to the elephants when they first entered the thorn-bushes. Then,
in front of the elephants, and about a mile off, was a large dense
forest. "If they enter that," said Hans, "we shall not see them again.
I should like to go down to the left, get in front of the elephants, and
either wait for them to feed up to us, or stalk them up wind. Then when
they run, they will go towards our waggons, and we shall be able to hunt
those which are not killed to-day, with the aid of our horses
to-morrow." After a slight hesitation the hunters decided that this was
the better plan, and determined at once to put it into execution. Each
man examined the priming of his rifle, put on fresh caps, felt the
position of his cartridges, powder-flask, and bullets, so as to be
certain all was ready for use; and then, following each other in Indian
file, the party strode forward in the direction agreed upon.