They climb up the miniature mast; they explore the body, dividing its fur by thrusts of the head.

It is recognized to be an excellent find.

So to work.

Here we have again, but under far more difficult conditions, the tactics employed when it was necessary to displace the unfavourably situated body: the two collaborators slip between the Mouse and the stake, when, taking a grip of the latter and exerting a leverage with their backs, they jerk and shake the body, which oscillates, twirls about, swings away from the stake and relapses.

All the morning is passed in vain attempts, interrupted by explorations on the animal's body.
In the afternoon the cause of the check is at last recognized; not very clearly, for in the first place the two obstinate riflers of the gallows attack the hind-legs of the Mouse, a little below the ligature.
They strip them bare, flay them and cut away the flesh about the heel.
They have reached the bone, when one of them finds the raphia beneath his mandibles.