soil enough to
let Jack leap down to his chum's aid. One by one the tusks were passed
back to the Indians and Masai, who grouped them in a pile with much
wondering chatter.

"Reg'lar cave down here," came the muffled voice of Jack. "All ready?"

"All ready," and more tusks came up. A moment later the dirt-smeared,
excited face of Charlie appeared, and he clambered out, followed after
by the figure of Jack.

"That's all, General. Hurray!"

"All!" echoed Schoverling. "Sure there's nothing else? Here, let me get
down there."

For the first time Charlie remembered the gold-dust. But although the
explorer poked around in the cave-like hole beneath with one of the
Masai knives, he finally had to climb up with the admission that the
boys had been right. There was no gold-dust.

For a few moments they stood around the huge pile of tusks, while von
Hofe counted them. All were wrapped securely in canvas, mouldy and
rotted away with the damp of the ground. Charlie tore at one and it came
loose in his fingers.

"Thirty-two," announced the big German excitedly. "They vas all goot,
but none fery large, too. Ach, vat a pile of ifory!"

"I'm sorry there was no gold-dust, though," said Schoverling. "Funny
Mowbray mentioned it. Prob'ly he took it for granted that it was down
there with the tusks. You don't suppose there could be a cache under
that other post, do you?"

"One o' these would be plenty to build," returned Jack. "Let's have a
look at the ivory, Chuck."

He pulled out his knife and ripped off the covering of the tusk Charlie
had been pulling at. The ivory gleamed yellow and discolored in the
sunlight, while a gasp of surprise went up from the Masai, as for the
first time they realized what these things were. The gun-bearers gazed
stolidly.

[Illustration: One slash of the knife, and out trickled a little stream
of yellow grains into the brown fist of the explorer.]

"What's this?"

Jack had held up the tusk, the point of which towered far above his
head. As he lowered the hollow butt to the ground in triumph, Charlie
sprang forward and picked up a little bag of skin that had been held
inside the hollow end by a wooden plug, rotted away. The explorer leaped
forward, whipping out his knife, and grabbed the little bag from
Charlie's hand. One slash of the knife, and out trickled a little stream
of yellow grains into the brown fist of the explorer.

"Gold!"

For a moment they all stood motionless, gazing at th