again. Worn out with fatigue and watching, the
soldier had slept late, and the sun was high in the heavens when he
awoke.

Looking about him, roused by the noise, he was just in time to save the
baboon's life. Luji had been engaged for some time pelting it with
sticks and stones, but the agile brute was too much for him. Masheesh
stood in the act of poising his assegai, when Hughes stopped him.

"The monkey saved my life, Wyzinski," said he; "and besides, it would be
hard to kill the creature which evidently trusts in us."

"Trusts in you, it would appear," replied the other; for at this moment,
as if recognising Hughes, it came towards him, showing the wounds on its
back, and holding out its bloody hands.

"Fetch me the arnica and some water, Luji; we will soon put those
scratches to rights, though they are caused by the lion's claws."

"The lion's claws!" asked the missionary; "why, what had the monkey and
lion in common?"

"I'll tell you when I have had a good wash, and some breakfast," replied
the other.

The baboon was soon caught, and his back freely bathed with the arnica
water, when the intense smarting, and the grotesque grimaces and loud
chattering consequent on it, caused shouts of laughter.

A good wash in the river, a hearty meal of eland meat, with a dessert of
the mobala fruit, strongly resembling in flavour the English strawberry,
and then the hunter told his tale. The news as to the wounded elephant
soon spread through the little camp, and every one, from the missionary
downwards, was eager to follow up the spoor.

They soon found it, leading from the trampled river bank up the slope,
and entering the wood, they at once came upon the animal itself, lying
quite dead on its side; a young tree having been borne down by the heavy
weight, had broken short off and lay under it. Standing near was the
young elephant, waiting for its dead mother to wake, and on the approach
of the party it struck the carcass several times with its trunk, and
failing to rouse it, trotted away in a lumbering fashion, its trunk
raised in the air, then turned to look. Like the baboon, it showed no
fear, barely refusing to be caught. The men were set to work to cut out
the tusks, but being unpractised hands, it took them all day to do it.
The best parts of the meat were brought into camp, and then the jackals
and hyenas assembled in large numbers, holding high carnival, while the
tusks, together with the panther and