CHAPTER NINE.
A RECONNOISSANCE INTERRUPTED.
Though the three had set out that morning with a wholesome dread of the elephant, and a determination to go about their reconnoissance with caution, their joy at the discovery of the ledges, and the eagerness with which they were scanning them, had for the moment banished from their minds all thoughts of the great quadruped.

They were thinking only of ledges and ladders, and talking loudly of how the latter might best be made and placed upon the former.
Just then, and just at the moment Ossaroo descended from the obelisk rock, Fritz, who had been prowling about among the trees, set up a fearful baying--such another as that to which he had given utterance on the night when the elephant had paid its visit to the hut.
There was a certain intonation of terror in the dog's voice--as if whatever called it forth was something that inspired him with fear.

The apprehension that it was the elephant occurred to all three at once; and with a simultaneous impulse they faced towards the spot whence the baying of the dog appeared to proceed.

Simultaneously, too, they clutched more firmly their respective weapons--Karl his rifle, Caspar his double-barrel, and Ossaroo his bow, with an arrow at the string.
It is superfluous to say, that there was a certain amount of consternation visible in the countenances of all three; which was rather increased than diminished by the sight of Fritz dashing suddenly out of the underwood, and running towards them at full speed, with his tail considerably below the horizontal.

Fritz, moreover, was giving utterance to something that very closely resembled a howl.