Everlastingly to right, or left of us, or up above, or down below we could hear the inhabitants scampering away.

Now and then an arrow would flitter between us; but their supply of ammunition seemed very scanty.
At night we camped in the cavern mouth to cut off all escape, and resumed the hunt at dawn.

But the caverns were hot--hotter by contrast with the biting winds outside; and when in the afternoon of the second day we all came out to breathe and cool off the running sweat, we saw the whole tribe--scarcely more than fifty of them--emerge from an opening above, whose existence we had not guessed, and go scampering away along a ledge like monkeys.

Some of them stopped to throw stones at us--impotent, aimless stones that fell half-way; and Fred sent three bullets after them, chipping bits from the ledge, after which they showed us a turn of speed that was simply incredible, and vanished.
"Now for the great disillusionment!" laughed Will.

"Hassan! Go forward, and show us where that hoard of ivory ought ta be!" We all expected disillusionment.