CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
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.