Chapter Twenty Five.

Chapter Twenty Five.“Like an old Tom-Cat.”There was nothing but the suggestion of the faint light of dawn stealing through the Rajah’s hole, as Peter called it; but Archie knew well enough the way to the cocoa-nut and the stone jar for a refreshing draught, after which he pulled himself together, and began to wonder at the different phases of the night.“I don’t think I should have been such a coward before that dreadful night,” he said to himself. “What horrors one can imagine at a time like this!”For there seemed to be a something in the coming of day that brought with it the flagging hope that had passed away, and minute by minute there was something to take his attention.He felt that there was no occasion to carry the spear any more, and he crept to its hiding-place and thrust it in where it would be safe, before crossing to the door and making use of Peter’s steps as he drew himself up to peer out and breathe in the cool, soft, refreshing air.And now the varying notes of birds came more often—cries of stork and crane, the whistle of the smaller parrots, the harsh shrieks of those of larger growth; and then he seemed to hear nothing, for all his feelings were concentrated in thoughts of his fellow-prisoner, in repetitions of how they had canvassed one particular thing, how he had objected, and how Peter Pegg had fought for and won in his determination that he would creep out from the roof, lower himself down, and make an expedition that should put away doubts and prove to them what their position really was, how near they were to their guards, and where the stables of the several elephants that passed their prison lay.“You see, Mister Archie, sir,” Peter had insisted, “we must do something. You are getting well on your legs now, and if we don’t make a heffort we may be kept here for months. You are my officer, and I take my orders from you, but I do beg and pray, sir, as you will let me have a try. I can get out easy enough, and I can get in again. An hour or two would do it.”And Archie had at last given way, to find that the hour or two had not done it, for the night had passed; it would soon be broad day, with the elephants being driven to water and a sentry resuming his post; and a chill was beginning to paralyse him, while hope grew more and more dull for the searcher for the way to freedom.There was a faint tint of red now right away over the top of the distant trees, and what seemed to be a mountain appeared above the jungle; but it brought no return of the hope, to Archie, as it grew redder and redder, it looked blood-like—a forecast, as it were, of the horror and despair that were soon to come upon him in the shape of a dreadful truth. For Peter had not come back; and even if he were to come now, it would only be to be seen and made a closer prisoner; the secret of his way out would be known, and they would be more carefully imprisoned. He must be seen now, for there was the distant trumpeting of the advancing elephants, and it was quite light enough for the sentry to make his way along the forest path to take his place beneath the tree, and perhaps come to peer in first to see if his prisoners were safe.Archie thought that perhaps the elephants might come by first, and then contradicted himself as he felt convinced that it would be the sentry; and as he peered forth from the hole, with the cold chill of despair increasing, there, far down the path, came the squat figure, with the light playing upon the end of his spear.“It’s all over,” thought the prisoner; and then he almost fell from the hole, and turned to stare wildly up at the mats which sloped down to the eaves of the building, and saw a leg thrust through hastily, then another, and the next moment Peter Pegg’s toes were kicking at the wall as he struggled, hanging by one hand, to rearrange the attap mat of the roof, and then, panting and breathless, he lowered himself down and dropped at Archie’s feet.“Oh, I say!” he groaned. “That was close! Sentry’s coming down the path.”“Yes, I saw him. Did he see you?”“No. I was creeping along like an old tom-cat to get round to the back, and, my word, ain’t I scratched! Talk about thorns!”“Oh Pete, how you frightened me!” said Archie faintly.“Frightened you, sir? Well, didn’t he frighten me?”

There was nothing but the suggestion of the faint light of dawn stealing through the Rajah’s hole, as Peter called it; but Archie knew well enough the way to the cocoa-nut and the stone jar for a refreshing draught, after which he pulled himself together, and began to wonder at the different phases of the night.

“I don’t think I should have been such a coward before that dreadful night,” he said to himself. “What horrors one can imagine at a time like this!”

For there seemed to be a something in the coming of day that brought with it the flagging hope that had passed away, and minute by minute there was something to take his attention.

He felt that there was no occasion to carry the spear any more, and he crept to its hiding-place and thrust it in where it would be safe, before crossing to the door and making use of Peter’s steps as he drew himself up to peer out and breathe in the cool, soft, refreshing air.

And now the varying notes of birds came more often—cries of stork and crane, the whistle of the smaller parrots, the harsh shrieks of those of larger growth; and then he seemed to hear nothing, for all his feelings were concentrated in thoughts of his fellow-prisoner, in repetitions of how they had canvassed one particular thing, how he had objected, and how Peter Pegg had fought for and won in his determination that he would creep out from the roof, lower himself down, and make an expedition that should put away doubts and prove to them what their position really was, how near they were to their guards, and where the stables of the several elephants that passed their prison lay.

“You see, Mister Archie, sir,” Peter had insisted, “we must do something. You are getting well on your legs now, and if we don’t make a heffort we may be kept here for months. You are my officer, and I take my orders from you, but I do beg and pray, sir, as you will let me have a try. I can get out easy enough, and I can get in again. An hour or two would do it.”

And Archie had at last given way, to find that the hour or two had not done it, for the night had passed; it would soon be broad day, with the elephants being driven to water and a sentry resuming his post; and a chill was beginning to paralyse him, while hope grew more and more dull for the searcher for the way to freedom.

There was a faint tint of red now right away over the top of the distant trees, and what seemed to be a mountain appeared above the jungle; but it brought no return of the hope, to Archie, as it grew redder and redder, it looked blood-like—a forecast, as it were, of the horror and despair that were soon to come upon him in the shape of a dreadful truth. For Peter had not come back; and even if he were to come now, it would only be to be seen and made a closer prisoner; the secret of his way out would be known, and they would be more carefully imprisoned. He must be seen now, for there was the distant trumpeting of the advancing elephants, and it was quite light enough for the sentry to make his way along the forest path to take his place beneath the tree, and perhaps come to peer in first to see if his prisoners were safe.

Archie thought that perhaps the elephants might come by first, and then contradicted himself as he felt convinced that it would be the sentry; and as he peered forth from the hole, with the cold chill of despair increasing, there, far down the path, came the squat figure, with the light playing upon the end of his spear.

“It’s all over,” thought the prisoner; and then he almost fell from the hole, and turned to stare wildly up at the mats which sloped down to the eaves of the building, and saw a leg thrust through hastily, then another, and the next moment Peter Pegg’s toes were kicking at the wall as he struggled, hanging by one hand, to rearrange the attap mat of the roof, and then, panting and breathless, he lowered himself down and dropped at Archie’s feet.

“Oh, I say!” he groaned. “That was close! Sentry’s coming down the path.”

“Yes, I saw him. Did he see you?”

“No. I was creeping along like an old tom-cat to get round to the back, and, my word, ain’t I scratched! Talk about thorns!”

“Oh Pete, how you frightened me!” said Archie faintly.

“Frightened you, sir? Well, didn’t he frighten me?”

Chapter Twenty Six.Must chance it.The sound of a step outside made Peter Pegg throw himself quickly down in a pile of the crushed leaves, burying his face in his hands, while Archie began to walk slowly up and down, conscious the while, through the shutting out of the morning light, that their guard had come up to the side of their prison and looked in, before going back to the sheltering tree, where he squatted down, to watch carelessly the coming of the elephants, one of which made for the hole, and was in the act of thrusting its trunk through, when it was charged by its big companion, the Rajah, who uttered a fierce squeal and drove the intruder away, before inserting his own trunk as usual, making no scruple about taking his customary refreshment from Archie’s hand, having during the past few days grown accustomed to the subaltern’s presence, and ending by giving the lad a few of the friendly touches that he was in the habit of bestowing upon Peter Pegg.As soon as the elephant had gone, and after giving a glance at their guard, Archie, who was burning to listen to what his fellow-prisoner had to say, lay down beside him, under the impression that weariness had kept him from rising to attend to the elephant’s visit.He found him so soundly asleep that he did not even respond to a sharp shake of the arm which Archie gave him on receiving no reply to his whispers; and then he had to contain himself till evening, when their usual visitors came; and it was not till long after, when they were once more alone, that the young private suddenly started up.“Have I been asleep?” he said half-wonderingly.“Asleep! Yes; and I want to know what you have found out.”“Let’s have a drink and something to eat first. I feel half-starved.”“Yes, of course—of course. Go on.”“Now,” said Peter, after a ravenous attack upon the bread and fruit. “Oh, here, this is good! Only I think it’s time we got some meat. I’d give anything for a bit of commissariat bacon. You want to hear what I did, sir. Well, it was next to nothing but crawl like a slug in and out amongst trees, scratting one’s self with that long, twining, climbing palm, and not once daring to stand up and walk.”“Well, but what did you find out?”“Nothing at all, sir, except that there’s a bit of a lodge here which seems as if it might belong to the Rajah, and be where he lived and slept.”“And was he there?”“Oh no, sir; there’s nobody there, only about a dozen Malay chaps, besides them as come to see us; and then there’s a very big helephant-shelter, like this, only quite new and good, at the end of that there left path; and right away beyond that, in a sort of clearing where the jungle has been cut down—if I didn’t tell you before—there’s some big trees and a sort of scaffold of bamboos that looks like a shelter such as any one would climb up to shoot tigers, and under it some bones, just as if a buffalo had been tied up for a bait.”“Yes, I see,” said Archie. “Well, go on.”“What about?”“About what you found next.”“I didn’t find nothing next, only paths—helephant-paths that go right away somewhere.”“Yes. Go on.”“Well, I did go on as far as I dared, sir; but it was all dark, and I couldn’t do anything so long as the Malay chaps were talking, and when they were quiet I was afraid to stir for fear of waking them up.”“But didn’t you find out where the paths led to?”“No, sir. I did try.”“Well, but didn’t you strike out into the jungle?”Peter chuckled.“Strike out, sir! Why, you’re shut in everywhere, and it’s like trying to break through a sort of natural cane basket.”“Then you really have done nothing?”“No, sir; only found that this seems to be the place in the forest where somebody comes to shoot tigers. And talk about them chickens—that’s why I did not go so far as I might. Every now and then I could hear one of them calling to its mate; and the first time it scared me so that I swarmed up a tree into the shelter or scaffold sort of place, where you could sit down.”“Well, what then?” said Archie impatiently.“Well, sir, I sat down.”“Naturally,” said Archie.“And then, when I thought it safe, and I was going to climb down in the dark to have another look,mi-a-o-u! There was that there great pussy again—and he was a whopper!”“But you couldn’t see him?”“No, sir; it was too dark. I knew he was a whopper, though, by the size of his squeak. But I am pretty sure that he could see me, for he seemed to come and sit upright in the middle of the clearing, and began to purr. Blessed if he didn’t sound just like a threshing-machine out in the fields at home after harvest-time.”Archie was silent for a few moments, and Peter Pegg went on quietly and thoughtfully:“Yes, sir; it sounded just like that.”“Then you stopped up in that shelter for long enough?”“I just did, sir—for hours.”“Did you go to sleep?”“Did I go to sleep, sir? No! Never felt so full of wide-awake in my life. Why, if you had heard that there thing roar—”“I did hear it roar,” said Archie quietly; “and it kept me awake all night.”“Hark at that now, sir,” said Peter. “My word, Mister Archie, sir! wouldn’t one of them be a fine thing to train young recruities with, and teach them how to keep awake on sentry?”“But you said something to me, Peter, about having to make our escape by daylight. Why?”“Why, sir? Because as soon as you try and travel out in that there jungle, it’s so dark that you can’t tell which way to steer.”“But we should have to trust to the elephant—if we could get him.”“Oh, that wouldn’t do, sir. We should have trouble enough with it all clear daylight. I’ve thought it all over till my head won’t think, and it’s all as clear as crystial. We must wait for morning, when the helephant comes for his titbits before one of these chaps mounts guard, and then slip out and chance it. I believe in chance, sir—chance and cheek. You can often do things by risking it when you makes all sorts of plans and fails.”“Well, Peter,” said Archie wearily, “I can propose nothing better.”“I wish you could, sir.”“So do I,” said Archie. “Well, we must try; and if they catch us, why, they can but bring us back. I don’t think they dare use their spears, for fear of what might follow when our people come to rescue us.”“Oh, they won’t dare to savage us, sir. I believe these are Rajah Suleiman’s men, and he wants to keep friendly with the Major.”“There I think you are wrong, Pete. If he wanted to keep friendly, he would not have set his men to attack our boat.”“I don’t know, sir,” said Peter solemnly, “for there’s a deal of cunning and dodgery amongst these krisy chaps, and you never knows what games they may be at; and as to waiting for our Bri’ish Grenadiers to march up and find us, I’m thinking that we may wait till all’s blue. My old woman used to say—my granny, you know, as brought me up—‘Peter,’ she used to say, ‘I am going to give you a moral lesson, boy: don’t you wait for people to help you, my lad; you help yourself.’”“That was very good advice, Pete,” said Archie, smiling, and uttering a deep yawn.“Yes, sir; and that’s what I used to do.”“Help yourself?”“I didn’t mean that, sir. I used to hear it so often that I used to do as you did just now.”“What do you mean?”“Yawn at it, sir.”“Oh!” said Archie. “Well, but, Pete, that tiger you talked about kept me awake all night.”“So he did me, sir.”“Yes,” said Archie, laughing; “but you’ve slept all day since.”“Right, sir. That’s one to you, Mister Archie. Well, sir, that’s our game, just as I say. We’ll lay up a good stock of rations—I mean save the fresh and keep on eating the stale, and be all ready for the right morning, and when it comes, nip outside, mount the helephant, and away we will go—I mean, that is, if you think that you can creep up same as I do, and lower yourself down from the roof.”“I think I could now, Pete.”The lad grunted.“What do you mean by that?”“It means I don’t, sir. I know you’dtry, buttryain’t enough. You mustdo. Still, it don’t mean that we are going to start to-morrow morning; and a good job, too, because there’s grub, and our sleep-chests is pretty well empty. We must both be as fit as fiddles, sir, and then we can play a tune that will make the niggers stare.”“Yes,” said Archie, after lying in silence for a few minutes, with the darkness rapidly approaching. “We will worry our brains no more. This plan is simple. We will be prepared, and then good luck go with us. We will make our start.”“Bray-vo!” cried Peter. “That’s talking like our own old Mister Archie. I say, sir, you are picking up!”“Am I, Pete?” said the lad sadly. “Feel my arm.”Pete ran his hand down his companion’s limb from shoulder to wrist.“Well, sir, that’s all right.”“All right! Why, I feel like a skeleton.”“Well, but the bones is all right, sir. You went for ever so long without eating anything at all but water, and there ain’t no chew in that; and when you did begin to peck, what’s it been? Soaked bread, and ’nanas and pumpkins. You couldn’t expect to get fat on them. Just wait till we get back to camp, and you are put on British beef and chicken, and them pheasants as you officers shoot. My,” said the lad, with a smack of his lips, “couldn’t I tackle one now—stuffed with bread-crumbs and roasted! I should be sorry for the poor dog as had to live on the bones. A bit of fish, too, fried, sir—even if it was only them ikon Sammy Langs. Here, stow it! I only wanted you not to fidget about being a bit fine. You get your pluck, Mister Archie; and you are doing that fast. Never mind about the fat and lean so long as you feel that you can hit out with your fist or tackle a kris chap with one of our spears. Doing a thing, sir, is saying you will do it and then doing it in real earnest. I say, how soon it has got dark! Now, what do you say to a bit of supper, and then finishing up our sleep?”“Agreed, Pete. But what about keeping watch for the tiger if it comes?”“Ah, I didn’t think about that, sir; but we’ve got to chance getting the elephant here and riding away before the sentry comes.”“Yes; we’ve settled that we must chance that.”“Yes, sir; and we must chance the tiger if he comes, which maybe he won’t, for we haven’t heard much of them chaps before.”

The sound of a step outside made Peter Pegg throw himself quickly down in a pile of the crushed leaves, burying his face in his hands, while Archie began to walk slowly up and down, conscious the while, through the shutting out of the morning light, that their guard had come up to the side of their prison and looked in, before going back to the sheltering tree, where he squatted down, to watch carelessly the coming of the elephants, one of which made for the hole, and was in the act of thrusting its trunk through, when it was charged by its big companion, the Rajah, who uttered a fierce squeal and drove the intruder away, before inserting his own trunk as usual, making no scruple about taking his customary refreshment from Archie’s hand, having during the past few days grown accustomed to the subaltern’s presence, and ending by giving the lad a few of the friendly touches that he was in the habit of bestowing upon Peter Pegg.

As soon as the elephant had gone, and after giving a glance at their guard, Archie, who was burning to listen to what his fellow-prisoner had to say, lay down beside him, under the impression that weariness had kept him from rising to attend to the elephant’s visit.

He found him so soundly asleep that he did not even respond to a sharp shake of the arm which Archie gave him on receiving no reply to his whispers; and then he had to contain himself till evening, when their usual visitors came; and it was not till long after, when they were once more alone, that the young private suddenly started up.

“Have I been asleep?” he said half-wonderingly.

“Asleep! Yes; and I want to know what you have found out.”

“Let’s have a drink and something to eat first. I feel half-starved.”

“Yes, of course—of course. Go on.”

“Now,” said Peter, after a ravenous attack upon the bread and fruit. “Oh, here, this is good! Only I think it’s time we got some meat. I’d give anything for a bit of commissariat bacon. You want to hear what I did, sir. Well, it was next to nothing but crawl like a slug in and out amongst trees, scratting one’s self with that long, twining, climbing palm, and not once daring to stand up and walk.”

“Well, but what did you find out?”

“Nothing at all, sir, except that there’s a bit of a lodge here which seems as if it might belong to the Rajah, and be where he lived and slept.”

“And was he there?”

“Oh no, sir; there’s nobody there, only about a dozen Malay chaps, besides them as come to see us; and then there’s a very big helephant-shelter, like this, only quite new and good, at the end of that there left path; and right away beyond that, in a sort of clearing where the jungle has been cut down—if I didn’t tell you before—there’s some big trees and a sort of scaffold of bamboos that looks like a shelter such as any one would climb up to shoot tigers, and under it some bones, just as if a buffalo had been tied up for a bait.”

“Yes, I see,” said Archie. “Well, go on.”

“What about?”

“About what you found next.”

“I didn’t find nothing next, only paths—helephant-paths that go right away somewhere.”

“Yes. Go on.”

“Well, I did go on as far as I dared, sir; but it was all dark, and I couldn’t do anything so long as the Malay chaps were talking, and when they were quiet I was afraid to stir for fear of waking them up.”

“But didn’t you find out where the paths led to?”

“No, sir. I did try.”

“Well, but didn’t you strike out into the jungle?”

Peter chuckled.

“Strike out, sir! Why, you’re shut in everywhere, and it’s like trying to break through a sort of natural cane basket.”

“Then you really have done nothing?”

“No, sir; only found that this seems to be the place in the forest where somebody comes to shoot tigers. And talk about them chickens—that’s why I did not go so far as I might. Every now and then I could hear one of them calling to its mate; and the first time it scared me so that I swarmed up a tree into the shelter or scaffold sort of place, where you could sit down.”

“Well, what then?” said Archie impatiently.

“Well, sir, I sat down.”

“Naturally,” said Archie.

“And then, when I thought it safe, and I was going to climb down in the dark to have another look,mi-a-o-u! There was that there great pussy again—and he was a whopper!”

“But you couldn’t see him?”

“No, sir; it was too dark. I knew he was a whopper, though, by the size of his squeak. But I am pretty sure that he could see me, for he seemed to come and sit upright in the middle of the clearing, and began to purr. Blessed if he didn’t sound just like a threshing-machine out in the fields at home after harvest-time.”

Archie was silent for a few moments, and Peter Pegg went on quietly and thoughtfully:

“Yes, sir; it sounded just like that.”

“Then you stopped up in that shelter for long enough?”

“I just did, sir—for hours.”

“Did you go to sleep?”

“Did I go to sleep, sir? No! Never felt so full of wide-awake in my life. Why, if you had heard that there thing roar—”

“I did hear it roar,” said Archie quietly; “and it kept me awake all night.”

“Hark at that now, sir,” said Peter. “My word, Mister Archie, sir! wouldn’t one of them be a fine thing to train young recruities with, and teach them how to keep awake on sentry?”

“But you said something to me, Peter, about having to make our escape by daylight. Why?”

“Why, sir? Because as soon as you try and travel out in that there jungle, it’s so dark that you can’t tell which way to steer.”

“But we should have to trust to the elephant—if we could get him.”

“Oh, that wouldn’t do, sir. We should have trouble enough with it all clear daylight. I’ve thought it all over till my head won’t think, and it’s all as clear as crystial. We must wait for morning, when the helephant comes for his titbits before one of these chaps mounts guard, and then slip out and chance it. I believe in chance, sir—chance and cheek. You can often do things by risking it when you makes all sorts of plans and fails.”

“Well, Peter,” said Archie wearily, “I can propose nothing better.”

“I wish you could, sir.”

“So do I,” said Archie. “Well, we must try; and if they catch us, why, they can but bring us back. I don’t think they dare use their spears, for fear of what might follow when our people come to rescue us.”

“Oh, they won’t dare to savage us, sir. I believe these are Rajah Suleiman’s men, and he wants to keep friendly with the Major.”

“There I think you are wrong, Pete. If he wanted to keep friendly, he would not have set his men to attack our boat.”

“I don’t know, sir,” said Peter solemnly, “for there’s a deal of cunning and dodgery amongst these krisy chaps, and you never knows what games they may be at; and as to waiting for our Bri’ish Grenadiers to march up and find us, I’m thinking that we may wait till all’s blue. My old woman used to say—my granny, you know, as brought me up—‘Peter,’ she used to say, ‘I am going to give you a moral lesson, boy: don’t you wait for people to help you, my lad; you help yourself.’”

“That was very good advice, Pete,” said Archie, smiling, and uttering a deep yawn.

“Yes, sir; and that’s what I used to do.”

“Help yourself?”

“I didn’t mean that, sir. I used to hear it so often that I used to do as you did just now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yawn at it, sir.”

“Oh!” said Archie. “Well, but, Pete, that tiger you talked about kept me awake all night.”

“So he did me, sir.”

“Yes,” said Archie, laughing; “but you’ve slept all day since.”

“Right, sir. That’s one to you, Mister Archie. Well, sir, that’s our game, just as I say. We’ll lay up a good stock of rations—I mean save the fresh and keep on eating the stale, and be all ready for the right morning, and when it comes, nip outside, mount the helephant, and away we will go—I mean, that is, if you think that you can creep up same as I do, and lower yourself down from the roof.”

“I think I could now, Pete.”

The lad grunted.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means I don’t, sir. I know you’dtry, buttryain’t enough. You mustdo. Still, it don’t mean that we are going to start to-morrow morning; and a good job, too, because there’s grub, and our sleep-chests is pretty well empty. We must both be as fit as fiddles, sir, and then we can play a tune that will make the niggers stare.”

“Yes,” said Archie, after lying in silence for a few minutes, with the darkness rapidly approaching. “We will worry our brains no more. This plan is simple. We will be prepared, and then good luck go with us. We will make our start.”

“Bray-vo!” cried Peter. “That’s talking like our own old Mister Archie. I say, sir, you are picking up!”

“Am I, Pete?” said the lad sadly. “Feel my arm.”

Pete ran his hand down his companion’s limb from shoulder to wrist.

“Well, sir, that’s all right.”

“All right! Why, I feel like a skeleton.”

“Well, but the bones is all right, sir. You went for ever so long without eating anything at all but water, and there ain’t no chew in that; and when you did begin to peck, what’s it been? Soaked bread, and ’nanas and pumpkins. You couldn’t expect to get fat on them. Just wait till we get back to camp, and you are put on British beef and chicken, and them pheasants as you officers shoot. My,” said the lad, with a smack of his lips, “couldn’t I tackle one now—stuffed with bread-crumbs and roasted! I should be sorry for the poor dog as had to live on the bones. A bit of fish, too, fried, sir—even if it was only them ikon Sammy Langs. Here, stow it! I only wanted you not to fidget about being a bit fine. You get your pluck, Mister Archie; and you are doing that fast. Never mind about the fat and lean so long as you feel that you can hit out with your fist or tackle a kris chap with one of our spears. Doing a thing, sir, is saying you will do it and then doing it in real earnest. I say, how soon it has got dark! Now, what do you say to a bit of supper, and then finishing up our sleep?”

“Agreed, Pete. But what about keeping watch for the tiger if it comes?”

“Ah, I didn’t think about that, sir; but we’ve got to chance getting the elephant here and riding away before the sentry comes.”

“Yes; we’ve settled that we must chance that.”

“Yes, sir; and we must chance the tiger if he comes, which maybe he won’t, for we haven’t heard much of them chaps before.”

Chapter Twenty Seven.In the Elephant-Holes.“Did you hear anything in the night, Pete?” said Archie the next morning.“There he is, bless him!” whispered Peter, from where he was peering through the lookout-hole.“What do you mean?”“That Malay chap, sir—the big one with the squint. I should like to drop upon him and smug that kris of his. Just think of it! As soon as we made up our minds to toddle the first time we can get the helephant here before they mount sentry, here he comes, just as if orders had been given for that to be done regular.”Peter dropped down from his lookout-hole, and began to pick out the worst of the fruit for the elephant when he came.“Seems hard on a friend, Mister Archie, but I don’t suppose the Rajah minds them being a bit over ripe.”“Not he,” replied Archie; “but I meant, did you hear anything in the night?”“Oh, you mean the tiger, sir? Yes, I heerd him three or four times, but I was too comfortable to sit up and bother about him. Did you hear him?”“I suppose I did, but it all seems as if it was part of a dream.”“That’s all right, then, sir. I say! Hear ’em? Here’s the helephants coming. You get up and look.”Archie mounted to the hole, and saw, following steadily one after the other, four of the great beasts, with the little, squat driver seated on the neck of the last; and after they had passed, loafing carelessly along as if he were too important and disdained to be driven, came the Rajah, muttering as if to himself, and walking straight up to the big stable door before going on to take his bath.Archie dropped down, after seeing that the sentry was quietly rolling up a fresh betel-quid, and Peter stood aside for his companion to take his place by the basket.“Never mind me, sir. Let him stroke you over as much as he likes; and you mustn’t mind if he smells you too much with the wet end of his trunk. I want you to be as good friends as me and him is.”The result was that Archie fed the great beast, and was caressed, the sensation being upon the lad, as he listened to the flapping of the elephant’s ears, that the beast’s two little, pig-like eyes were piercing some crack in the door and watching him intently.Then, as if quite satisfied with his share in the provender, which he must have taken as a dainty addition to the vast quantities of jungle grass and leafage which formed his real support, the elephant swung off, bowing his huge head and muttering softly, to overtake his companions, while Peter gave his officer a very knowing look.“There, sir,” he said, “that’s just what we want, only no sentry. You will have to creep out with the prog and the spears, and the krises when they comes, which we shall have all ready, while I’m feeding him, and then go on yourself giving him some bread which we will save up for him. I shall join you, and tell him to kneel down; up we gets. You will crawl on and hold on by the ropes while I settle down with my legs under his ears. It will be just as easy as A, B, C.”“IF,” said Archie, in capital letters.But the days passed wearily on; provisions were stored up, and there had been no chance of securing a kris, let alone two, and Peter declared that it was all out of aggravation that some sentry or another always took up his daily task before the elephants came.“They are making a regular custom of it, sir,” he said. “Cuss them!”“What’s that, Pete?”“I only saidcustom, sir. I warn’t swearing. I won’t say what I might have said if you hadn’t been here.”That very afternoon, as if fate had become weary of fighting against them, Peter, who had been watching the sentry’s weapons with covetous eyes till it was beginning to grow dusk, suddenly uttered an ejaculation.“What is it, Pete?”“Look here, sir. Be smart, before it gets dark. I have been watching this ’ere chap for a hour. He has been nodding off to sleep all the time, and now he’s off sound.”“What of that?”“Kris, sir,” said the lad; and crossing the floor of the great building, he climbed cleverly up to the thatch and passed out, and Archie heard a faint rustling, and then sat listening in the dark till, after what seemed to be an impossibly short space of time, the rustling began again, and a few minutes afterwards Peter, panting heavily, dropped down on his knees by the subaltern’s side.“Well, was it still too light for you to venture?” asked Archie.“Poof!” ejaculated the lad. “Ketch hold ’ere, sir;” and he thrust the pistol-butt-like handle of a kris into his companion’s hand. “Sound as a top, sir. Ain’t that prime! Don’t I wish he had had a mate, so that I could have got two!”“But he will miss it as soon as he wakes,” exclaimed Archie.“Not ’im, sir; and if he does, he’ll think that one of his mates has been larking. Wait a bit, and I shall get another chance, for we ought to have two.”But Fate was going to smile again, for the very next morning, in a wild state of excitement, the lad gripped his young officer’s hand tightly between his own.“No larks, sir,” he half-sobbed. “Don’t gammon me. If you don’t feel strong enough, say so, and we’ll wait.”“What do you mean? What’s the matter?” whispered back Archie.“Look there, sir! The helephants are coming, and there ain’t no sentry.”“Oh!” ejaculated Archie, wild now with excitement, “I’m strong enough for anything.”“Then take it coolly, sir, just as if we weren’t going to make a bolt. That chap must have been a bit sick last night, or been taking bhang or something, and he’s overslept himself this morning. Now then! Spears—kris—victuals. Ready for action. Let’s get part of the prog on to the thatch. You hand it up to me, and then mount yourself.—Oh dear, we sha’n’t have half enough time!”“But suppose the sentry comes?”“Lie down on the thatch. You will be out of sight.”The low muttering of the elephants was heard as Peter scrambled up to his hole in the roof. Archie handed up the spears, which the lad took, and used one to help him in drawing up the basket of provisions, leaving Archie to follow with a couple of cakes thrust into his breast; and by the time the young subaltern was climbing along the thatch preparatory to lowering himself down, five of the elephants had shuffled by, with the squat little driver mounted on the last, and disappeared round a curve of the narrow elephant-path.As usual, their great fellow, Rajah, as Peter called him, was coming muttering up, apparently only seeing the ground just where he was about to plant his feet, so that he started and prepared to swerve as he suddenly caught sight of the private standing waiting for him, this being something entirely fresh.But Peter did not lose his presence of mind; he called him by name and held out a piece of the cake, when the great animal uttered a loud grunt, stopped short, and extended his trunk, not to grasp the tempting offering, but to bring to bear his wonderful sense of smell before he was satisfied.Then he passed his trunk over the lad’s chest, muttering pleasantly the while, and taking the piece of cake, transferred it to his cavernous mouth.“Now, Mister Archie, sir, bring what you can, and never mind the rest. We haven’t a moment to spare. Come gently, whatever you do.”Archie was slowly descending the slope of the great thatched roof, which seemed to be a perfectly easy task, but so novel to one who had not had Peter’s experience that when he had nearly reached the eaves and was planting his feet carefully, in preparation for lowering himself down the eight or nine feet of perpendicular wall, whose trellis-work would afford him support, the tied-in piece of flat stone upon which he had planted his foot suddenly gave way, and slipped from the thin cane. A faint cry escaped from the young officer’s lips as he grasped at the brittle attap mat, which gave way at once. He slipped over the ragged mat which formed the eaves, and the next moment,crack, crack, crack, he was hanging feet downwards, and then fell heavily in a cloud of dust bump upon the trampled earth, in company with a snake about six feet long, which began to glide rapidly away.“You’ve done it, sir!” panted Peter; and then loudly, “It’s all right, old man,” he continued, as he held out the rest of the piece of cake. “That’s only his way of coming down. Whatcher frightened about? Oh, I see; it’s that snake;” and catching up one of the spears which he had leaned up against the big door, he used it pitchfork fashion to the writhing reptile, and sent it flying upward on to the roof, for it to begin scuffling away amidst the leafy thatch.Phoonk! said the elephant; and he slowly turned himself as if upon a pivot, and extended his trunk to the coveted cake.“Don’t say you are hurt, sir!” whispered Peter. “You can go on, can’t you? Oh, do say you can!”“Yes, yes,” panted Archie confusedly; “I think I am all right.”“Then here goes for it, sir. I don’t feel a bit sure, but I am going to try as soon as I have fed him a bit more. Don’t you bother about the prog. I am going to make him carry it as inside passengers. It will please him, and if he will carry us we will eat leaves or grass.—Come on, old man. Here you are! Ripe ’nanas, and one of them pumpkin things. What! rather have the pumpkin first?” he continued, as the great trunk curved slowly towards the golden-hued, melon-like fruit. “Can’t swallow that all at once, can you? And I don’t want to stop and cut it. What! you can? Oh, all right, then. I forgot you’d got grinders as big as meat-tins.—Good-bye, pumpkin.—Now, Mister Archie, I am not sure, but I think I can say what the mahout does when he wants him to kneel down. Then don’t you stop a moment, but climb up and get hold of them ropes that he has got round him, pull yourself up, and hold on. Ready?”“Yes,” said Archie dreamily; but he was shaken up and confused by his fall.“Now, Rajah, kneel down!” cried Peter, in the nearest approach he could recall to the Malay mahout’s command; and, to his great delight, the huge beast swayed from side to side and sank upon the earth, at the same time curving his trunk towards Peter as he raised his head.“There you are,” cried Peter, as he passed a couple of the bananas he held ready, and the moment these had been grasped and the trunk lowered again, “Now then, up with you!” cried the lad; and planting a foot upon one of the corrugations of the wrinkling trunk, Archie began to scramble up, passing over the animal’s forehead, up between the extended ears and over the rugosities between head and neck.He nearly slipped as he reached for one of the ropes that girdled the animal’s loins, but recovered himself, and, to Peter’s satisfaction, seated himself, holding on tightly by the howdah-stays.“Here you are!” cried Peter again, and this time he handed a great lump of cake, which the elephant took contentedly.—“Now, Mister Archie, sir,” he cried, as he seized the two spears and handed them up, “take hold; I’ll carry one by-and-by.—Now, old chap,” he continued, “it’s my turn now. Up with you!” And once more his memory served him in giving some rendering of the mahout’s command, for in his slow, lumbering fashion the monster began to sway.“Hold tight, sir, whatever you do,” cried Peter.“Yes. Are you going to walk?”“Not me, sir; but I do wish that we hadn’t got to leave that basket behind.”By this time the towering beast was once more upon its feet, and Peter was puzzling his head for an order he had forgotten; but just as some misty notion of the Malay words was hovering in his brain the great trunk encircled his waist, he was lifted from the ground, and the next minute he was gliding safely into the mahout’s place, his widely outstretched legs settling themselves behind the monster’s ears.“Now, Mister Archie, give us one of them spears. Got it! Now then—talk about a mahout!—Geet! geet! Netherway!” he cried, using the words familiar to him from the days when he used to watch the carters and their teams. “What are you up to now?—Look at that, now, Mister Archie!” For, to the lad’s great delight, the elephant had swung himself round a little, the effect being to Archie that of a heavily laden boat in a rough sea, and reaching out with his trunk towards the basket with the rest of the fruit, he had picked it up, and then began to march solemnly and sedately in the direction taken by the other elephants every morning since they had passed the great shed.“Can you hold on, Mister Archie?” said Peter.“Yes; pretty well. Are you all right?”“Oh, I’m all right, sir; but ’ware trees as soon as we get into that path in front. Mind as the branches don’t wipe you off.”“I’ll try.”“I say, sir, don’t the Rajah know how to take care of hisself!” cried Peter, carrying his spear diagonally, and looking as if he was prepared to use it if any one should present himself to stop their way. “Now what do you think of our plan, sir?”“Oh, it’s splendid,” replied the young officer. “But never mind me. Don’t talk much, for I hurt my head a little when I fell.”“Don’t think about it, sir. It will soon pass off,” cried Peter without turning his head, and then muttering, “Think of me talking to the poor fellow like that!—Now then, go ahead, Rajah! Best leg foremost, old man. Headquarters, please; and I hope you know the way, for I’m blest if I do. All I know is that I don’t want to see that little chap again for him to go and fetch some of them guards.”The elephant slowly shuffled along for the next ten minutes or so, before the first difficulty that presented itself to the amateur mahout appeared in front; for after they had pursued the regular elephant-path beyond the clearing for some little time, there in front was a dividing of the road, and upon reaching this the elephant stopped as if in doubt, and began slowly swinging his head, ending by planting the basket he carried upon the earth and helping himself to another of the coarse melons.“Which way?” growled Peter, as he looked down each path in turn, the one being fairly trampled, but green with the shoots of the cane; the other showing the regular holes, and being wet and muddy in the extreme.“All right,” thought the lad. “That must be the way down to the river where t’others have gone for their bath. Right!” he cried, as the elephant raised the basket again and inclined his head slowly as if to follow the muddy path, from some distance down which came the grunting of the other elephants, when, in his excitement, Peter uttered a savage “Yah-h!”This did as well as the purest Malay order meaning to the left, for the elephant turned his head in the other direction at once, and then planting his great feet carefully in the fairly dry holes, he began to follow the greener path.Squash—suck—squash—suck, on and on through the forest shades, and as the boughs of the jungle trees hung over here and there lower and lower in the great tunnel of greenery, so cramped in size that there seemed to be only just room for the elephant to pass along, Peter kept on looking back nervously, half-expecting to see his companion swept away from his precarious perch.

“Did you hear anything in the night, Pete?” said Archie the next morning.

“There he is, bless him!” whispered Peter, from where he was peering through the lookout-hole.

“What do you mean?”

“That Malay chap, sir—the big one with the squint. I should like to drop upon him and smug that kris of his. Just think of it! As soon as we made up our minds to toddle the first time we can get the helephant here before they mount sentry, here he comes, just as if orders had been given for that to be done regular.”

Peter dropped down from his lookout-hole, and began to pick out the worst of the fruit for the elephant when he came.

“Seems hard on a friend, Mister Archie, but I don’t suppose the Rajah minds them being a bit over ripe.”

“Not he,” replied Archie; “but I meant, did you hear anything in the night?”

“Oh, you mean the tiger, sir? Yes, I heerd him three or four times, but I was too comfortable to sit up and bother about him. Did you hear him?”

“I suppose I did, but it all seems as if it was part of a dream.”

“That’s all right, then, sir. I say! Hear ’em? Here’s the helephants coming. You get up and look.”

Archie mounted to the hole, and saw, following steadily one after the other, four of the great beasts, with the little, squat driver seated on the neck of the last; and after they had passed, loafing carelessly along as if he were too important and disdained to be driven, came the Rajah, muttering as if to himself, and walking straight up to the big stable door before going on to take his bath.

Archie dropped down, after seeing that the sentry was quietly rolling up a fresh betel-quid, and Peter stood aside for his companion to take his place by the basket.

“Never mind me, sir. Let him stroke you over as much as he likes; and you mustn’t mind if he smells you too much with the wet end of his trunk. I want you to be as good friends as me and him is.”

The result was that Archie fed the great beast, and was caressed, the sensation being upon the lad, as he listened to the flapping of the elephant’s ears, that the beast’s two little, pig-like eyes were piercing some crack in the door and watching him intently.

Then, as if quite satisfied with his share in the provender, which he must have taken as a dainty addition to the vast quantities of jungle grass and leafage which formed his real support, the elephant swung off, bowing his huge head and muttering softly, to overtake his companions, while Peter gave his officer a very knowing look.

“There, sir,” he said, “that’s just what we want, only no sentry. You will have to creep out with the prog and the spears, and the krises when they comes, which we shall have all ready, while I’m feeding him, and then go on yourself giving him some bread which we will save up for him. I shall join you, and tell him to kneel down; up we gets. You will crawl on and hold on by the ropes while I settle down with my legs under his ears. It will be just as easy as A, B, C.”

“IF,” said Archie, in capital letters.

But the days passed wearily on; provisions were stored up, and there had been no chance of securing a kris, let alone two, and Peter declared that it was all out of aggravation that some sentry or another always took up his daily task before the elephants came.

“They are making a regular custom of it, sir,” he said. “Cuss them!”

“What’s that, Pete?”

“I only saidcustom, sir. I warn’t swearing. I won’t say what I might have said if you hadn’t been here.”

That very afternoon, as if fate had become weary of fighting against them, Peter, who had been watching the sentry’s weapons with covetous eyes till it was beginning to grow dusk, suddenly uttered an ejaculation.

“What is it, Pete?”

“Look here, sir. Be smart, before it gets dark. I have been watching this ’ere chap for a hour. He has been nodding off to sleep all the time, and now he’s off sound.”

“What of that?”

“Kris, sir,” said the lad; and crossing the floor of the great building, he climbed cleverly up to the thatch and passed out, and Archie heard a faint rustling, and then sat listening in the dark till, after what seemed to be an impossibly short space of time, the rustling began again, and a few minutes afterwards Peter, panting heavily, dropped down on his knees by the subaltern’s side.

“Well, was it still too light for you to venture?” asked Archie.

“Poof!” ejaculated the lad. “Ketch hold ’ere, sir;” and he thrust the pistol-butt-like handle of a kris into his companion’s hand. “Sound as a top, sir. Ain’t that prime! Don’t I wish he had had a mate, so that I could have got two!”

“But he will miss it as soon as he wakes,” exclaimed Archie.

“Not ’im, sir; and if he does, he’ll think that one of his mates has been larking. Wait a bit, and I shall get another chance, for we ought to have two.”

But Fate was going to smile again, for the very next morning, in a wild state of excitement, the lad gripped his young officer’s hand tightly between his own.

“No larks, sir,” he half-sobbed. “Don’t gammon me. If you don’t feel strong enough, say so, and we’ll wait.”

“What do you mean? What’s the matter?” whispered back Archie.

“Look there, sir! The helephants are coming, and there ain’t no sentry.”

“Oh!” ejaculated Archie, wild now with excitement, “I’m strong enough for anything.”

“Then take it coolly, sir, just as if we weren’t going to make a bolt. That chap must have been a bit sick last night, or been taking bhang or something, and he’s overslept himself this morning. Now then! Spears—kris—victuals. Ready for action. Let’s get part of the prog on to the thatch. You hand it up to me, and then mount yourself.—Oh dear, we sha’n’t have half enough time!”

“But suppose the sentry comes?”

“Lie down on the thatch. You will be out of sight.”

The low muttering of the elephants was heard as Peter scrambled up to his hole in the roof. Archie handed up the spears, which the lad took, and used one to help him in drawing up the basket of provisions, leaving Archie to follow with a couple of cakes thrust into his breast; and by the time the young subaltern was climbing along the thatch preparatory to lowering himself down, five of the elephants had shuffled by, with the squat little driver mounted on the last, and disappeared round a curve of the narrow elephant-path.

As usual, their great fellow, Rajah, as Peter called him, was coming muttering up, apparently only seeing the ground just where he was about to plant his feet, so that he started and prepared to swerve as he suddenly caught sight of the private standing waiting for him, this being something entirely fresh.

But Peter did not lose his presence of mind; he called him by name and held out a piece of the cake, when the great animal uttered a loud grunt, stopped short, and extended his trunk, not to grasp the tempting offering, but to bring to bear his wonderful sense of smell before he was satisfied.

Then he passed his trunk over the lad’s chest, muttering pleasantly the while, and taking the piece of cake, transferred it to his cavernous mouth.

“Now, Mister Archie, sir, bring what you can, and never mind the rest. We haven’t a moment to spare. Come gently, whatever you do.”

Archie was slowly descending the slope of the great thatched roof, which seemed to be a perfectly easy task, but so novel to one who had not had Peter’s experience that when he had nearly reached the eaves and was planting his feet carefully, in preparation for lowering himself down the eight or nine feet of perpendicular wall, whose trellis-work would afford him support, the tied-in piece of flat stone upon which he had planted his foot suddenly gave way, and slipped from the thin cane. A faint cry escaped from the young officer’s lips as he grasped at the brittle attap mat, which gave way at once. He slipped over the ragged mat which formed the eaves, and the next moment,crack, crack, crack, he was hanging feet downwards, and then fell heavily in a cloud of dust bump upon the trampled earth, in company with a snake about six feet long, which began to glide rapidly away.

“You’ve done it, sir!” panted Peter; and then loudly, “It’s all right, old man,” he continued, as he held out the rest of the piece of cake. “That’s only his way of coming down. Whatcher frightened about? Oh, I see; it’s that snake;” and catching up one of the spears which he had leaned up against the big door, he used it pitchfork fashion to the writhing reptile, and sent it flying upward on to the roof, for it to begin scuffling away amidst the leafy thatch.

Phoonk! said the elephant; and he slowly turned himself as if upon a pivot, and extended his trunk to the coveted cake.

“Don’t say you are hurt, sir!” whispered Peter. “You can go on, can’t you? Oh, do say you can!”

“Yes, yes,” panted Archie confusedly; “I think I am all right.”

“Then here goes for it, sir. I don’t feel a bit sure, but I am going to try as soon as I have fed him a bit more. Don’t you bother about the prog. I am going to make him carry it as inside passengers. It will please him, and if he will carry us we will eat leaves or grass.—Come on, old man. Here you are! Ripe ’nanas, and one of them pumpkin things. What! rather have the pumpkin first?” he continued, as the great trunk curved slowly towards the golden-hued, melon-like fruit. “Can’t swallow that all at once, can you? And I don’t want to stop and cut it. What! you can? Oh, all right, then. I forgot you’d got grinders as big as meat-tins.—Good-bye, pumpkin.—Now, Mister Archie, I am not sure, but I think I can say what the mahout does when he wants him to kneel down. Then don’t you stop a moment, but climb up and get hold of them ropes that he has got round him, pull yourself up, and hold on. Ready?”

“Yes,” said Archie dreamily; but he was shaken up and confused by his fall.

“Now, Rajah, kneel down!” cried Peter, in the nearest approach he could recall to the Malay mahout’s command; and, to his great delight, the huge beast swayed from side to side and sank upon the earth, at the same time curving his trunk towards Peter as he raised his head.

“There you are,” cried Peter, as he passed a couple of the bananas he held ready, and the moment these had been grasped and the trunk lowered again, “Now then, up with you!” cried the lad; and planting a foot upon one of the corrugations of the wrinkling trunk, Archie began to scramble up, passing over the animal’s forehead, up between the extended ears and over the rugosities between head and neck.

He nearly slipped as he reached for one of the ropes that girdled the animal’s loins, but recovered himself, and, to Peter’s satisfaction, seated himself, holding on tightly by the howdah-stays.

“Here you are!” cried Peter again, and this time he handed a great lump of cake, which the elephant took contentedly.—“Now, Mister Archie, sir,” he cried, as he seized the two spears and handed them up, “take hold; I’ll carry one by-and-by.—Now, old chap,” he continued, “it’s my turn now. Up with you!” And once more his memory served him in giving some rendering of the mahout’s command, for in his slow, lumbering fashion the monster began to sway.

“Hold tight, sir, whatever you do,” cried Peter.

“Yes. Are you going to walk?”

“Not me, sir; but I do wish that we hadn’t got to leave that basket behind.”

By this time the towering beast was once more upon its feet, and Peter was puzzling his head for an order he had forgotten; but just as some misty notion of the Malay words was hovering in his brain the great trunk encircled his waist, he was lifted from the ground, and the next minute he was gliding safely into the mahout’s place, his widely outstretched legs settling themselves behind the monster’s ears.

“Now, Mister Archie, give us one of them spears. Got it! Now then—talk about a mahout!—Geet! geet! Netherway!” he cried, using the words familiar to him from the days when he used to watch the carters and their teams. “What are you up to now?—Look at that, now, Mister Archie!” For, to the lad’s great delight, the elephant had swung himself round a little, the effect being to Archie that of a heavily laden boat in a rough sea, and reaching out with his trunk towards the basket with the rest of the fruit, he had picked it up, and then began to march solemnly and sedately in the direction taken by the other elephants every morning since they had passed the great shed.

“Can you hold on, Mister Archie?” said Peter.

“Yes; pretty well. Are you all right?”

“Oh, I’m all right, sir; but ’ware trees as soon as we get into that path in front. Mind as the branches don’t wipe you off.”

“I’ll try.”

“I say, sir, don’t the Rajah know how to take care of hisself!” cried Peter, carrying his spear diagonally, and looking as if he was prepared to use it if any one should present himself to stop their way. “Now what do you think of our plan, sir?”

“Oh, it’s splendid,” replied the young officer. “But never mind me. Don’t talk much, for I hurt my head a little when I fell.”

“Don’t think about it, sir. It will soon pass off,” cried Peter without turning his head, and then muttering, “Think of me talking to the poor fellow like that!—Now then, go ahead, Rajah! Best leg foremost, old man. Headquarters, please; and I hope you know the way, for I’m blest if I do. All I know is that I don’t want to see that little chap again for him to go and fetch some of them guards.”

The elephant slowly shuffled along for the next ten minutes or so, before the first difficulty that presented itself to the amateur mahout appeared in front; for after they had pursued the regular elephant-path beyond the clearing for some little time, there in front was a dividing of the road, and upon reaching this the elephant stopped as if in doubt, and began slowly swinging his head, ending by planting the basket he carried upon the earth and helping himself to another of the coarse melons.

“Which way?” growled Peter, as he looked down each path in turn, the one being fairly trampled, but green with the shoots of the cane; the other showing the regular holes, and being wet and muddy in the extreme.

“All right,” thought the lad. “That must be the way down to the river where t’others have gone for their bath. Right!” he cried, as the elephant raised the basket again and inclined his head slowly as if to follow the muddy path, from some distance down which came the grunting of the other elephants, when, in his excitement, Peter uttered a savage “Yah-h!”

This did as well as the purest Malay order meaning to the left, for the elephant turned his head in the other direction at once, and then planting his great feet carefully in the fairly dry holes, he began to follow the greener path.

Squash—suck—squash—suck, on and on through the forest shades, and as the boughs of the jungle trees hung over here and there lower and lower in the great tunnel of greenery, so cramped in size that there seemed to be only just room for the elephant to pass along, Peter kept on looking back nervously, half-expecting to see his companion swept away from his precarious perch.

Chapter Twenty Eight.Phoonk!“I’m getting better fast, Pete,” cried Archie Maine, his voice sounding clearly above thesuck, suckof the elephant’s feet in the deep old tracks, and thewhisk, whiskof the green cane-sprouts that shot out on either side from the wall of verdure.“That’s right, sir. You do comfort me. I’ve been thinking that it wasn’t fair of me to be riding comfortable here while you’ve got nothing but a bit of rope to hold on by except your balance. But, I say, it ain’t all best down here, for, my eye, ain’t it ’ot!—quite steamy.”“Yes; this tunnel is steamy and hot,” replied Archie.“Oh, I don’t mean the tunnel, sir. I mean Rajah’s neck and these two great fly-flaps of his keeping all the wind out. I tried lifting up one of them, but I suppose it tiddled him—fancied he had got a big fly about him, I suppose. I say, Mister Archie, ain’t it prime! He don’t seem to be going fast, but, my word, with these long legs of his how he does get over the ground! But, I say, look ye here; wouldn’t this be a jolly place if we was out for a holiday, instead of being like on furlough without leave?”“It’s beautiful,” said Archie; for after they had travelled for some time in deep shadow, completely covered in, the jungle suddenly opened out, and their way was now between two perpendicular walls of dense green verdure. Just in front a couple of brilliantly green-and-gold, long-tailed paroquets suddenly flashed into sight as if about to alight, but, startled by the elephant, they flew off with sharp screams.And now time after time large, wide-winged, diurnal moths and glistening butterflies flew up from where they had settled on the dew-drenched herbage and fluttered before them. Not far onward a flock of finches flew from the tops of the green banks, twittering loudly as they displayed the brilliance of the blue and yellow and green of their plumage and its varying shades. But this was only for a time. The jungle growth rose higher on either side till it shut out the sunshine, and once more the elephant-path wore the aspect of a deep, shadowy tunnel, while the air grew more moist and steamy, seeming stagnant to a degree.“All right, sir?” cried Peter, straining to look round.“Yes, yes, Pete. My fall shook me a bit, and seemed to bring back the old aching in my head. But don’t mind me. I feel quite happy now that we are getting farther and farther from our prison. We are free, and if I could only feel that we were going in the right direction I should not care.”“Oh, don’t care, sir; don’t care a bit. It’s chance it—chance it. Old Rajah’s taking us somewhere, and why shouldn’t it be to headquarters?”“It’s not likely, Pete.”“Very well, sir. Then I will have another go. What do you say to its being to the Rajah’s palace? I don’t know where it is—only that it is somewhere in the jungle, not very far from the river. You’ve never been there, have you?”“No, Pete, I haven’t. But, as you say, it is not far from the river.”“Well, sir, we can’t be far from the river. It must be somewhere off to our right flank, and old Rajah here must know his way, or else he wouldn’t be going so steadily on; and the beauty of these places is that when once you are on the right road you can’t miss your way, because there ain’t no turning.”“But we passed one turning to the right.”“Yes, sir. That’s where the helephants went down to drink, and you see if we don’t come to another farther on. But this is splendid travelling. How he does get over the ground! And if it warn’t for the commissariat department one could go on day after day, just making a halt now and then for this chap to take in half a load of growing hay and suck in a tubful of water, and then go on again.”“Hush! Don’t talk so, Pete.”“Why not, sir? I am doing it to keep up your sperrits.”“But I want to listen.”“Hear anything, sir?”“I am not sure. But I keep expecting to hear some of the Malays in pursuit.”“Not likely, sir. If they are they must be coming on one of the other helephants, and I don’t believe any of them can walk as fast as this one does, so they are not likely to overtake us. We are safe enough so long as we can get old Rajah here to keep on. The only thing that fidgets me is the eating and drinking.”“I should be glad to have some water,” said Archie, “but I can wait till we come close to the river.”“That’s right, sir; but what about something to eat? Old Rajah seems to have thought that all that was in the basket was meant for him, and he’s tucked it inside and chucked the basket away. So don’t be hungry, sir.”“I have two of the cakes, Pete, inside my jacket.”“What! Oh, who’s going to mind? That’s splendid noos, sir.—Go ahead, old chap. What are you flapping your ears about for? Think you can hear water?”“There, Pete,” said Archie eagerly, “I am nearly sure now I heard a faint cry far behind.”“Oh, some bird, sir. Don’t you get fancying that. We are miles and miles away from where we started, and as most likely we are pretty close to the river, it’s one of those long-legged heron things, and if you hear anything else it’s like enough to be one of them big frogs or toads. If it was to-night instead of being this afternoon, I should say it was one of the crocs. But I should know him pretty well by heart.”The great elephant went patiently trudging on, mile after mile, with the heat so intense that Archie Maine had to fight hard to keep off a growing drowsiness, and he now welcomed the fact that the portion of the jungle through which they were being carried kept on sending down trailing strands of the rotan cane and other creepers which threatened to lasso him and drag him from his seat.But no further cry or note of bird came to suggest danger from the rear, and as the drowsiness at length passed away, the question began to arise: what was to happen when darkness came on?—for the afternoon was well spent.It was after a long silence that Archie broached this question.“What are we going to do when it’s dark, sir?” said Peter. “Well, I’ve been a-thinking of that—not like you have.”“How do you know what I’ve been thinking?” asked Archie sharply.“Well, I ain’t sure, of course, sir, but I should think you are wondering what we should do if we come across a tiger. It strikes me that we needn’t mind that—at least, not in front, for Mr Stripes wouldn’t face these ’ere two great tusks. One of them would go through him like a shot. What I’m thinking of is the making of a halt, first clearing we come to. But if we do, who’s going to tie up Rajah so that he sha’n’t go back? He might take it into his head to stop by the river-side for some water, but it strikes me, sir, that as soon as we got off he’d go back to the old stable to see if he couldn’t find something to eat and drink.”“Hush, Pete!” cried Archie excitedly.“What for, sir? Afraid he will understand what we are saying?”“Hush, I say!”“All right, sir,” said Peter, speaking in a whisper. “But he does keep cocking up his ears and listening.”“Yes,” said Archie; “I was in doubt before, but I am sure now. It’s some one keeps on hailing us from behind. Drive him on faster, for I am sure we are pursued.”“What! make him gallop, sir? Why, it would chuck you off directly.”“No; I think I could keep on. We must try and leave whoever it is behind. I couldn’t bear for us to be taken again.”“We ain’t a-going to be, sir, so long as we have these ’ere toothpicks to fight with.”“That’s a last resource. Try to hurry the beast.”“He won’t hurry, sir. ’Tisn’t as if I’d got one of them anchors, as they call them; and even if I had, poor old chap! I shouldn’t have the heart to stick it into him as the mahouts do.”“It wouldn’t hurt him more than spurring does a horse, with such a thick skin.”“But I ain’t got one of them boat-hooky tools. Look here, sir; hand me that there kris. Ain’t poisoned, is it?”“The Doctor says they are not.”“Let’s have it, then, sir.—Why, what game do you call this?”For at that moment, before any experiment could be tried with the goad, a faint, unmistakable hail was heard from far behind, running as it were along deep, verdant tunnels, and Rajah, after flapping his ears heavily, uttered a low, deep sigh, stopped short, and began to tear down green branches from overhead and convey them to his mouth.“Oh, this won’t do!” cried Peter angrily.—“Get on, sir—get on!”The elephant uttered what sounded to be a sigh and raised one huge leg as if about to step out, but only planted it down again in the same deep hole, went through the same evolution with another leg, subsided again, and went on crunching the abundant succulent herbage.“It’s no good, Pete,” said Archie bitterly. “They are in full chase. The elephant recognises the cry, and you will never get him to stir.”“An obstinate beggar!” grumbled Peter. “Makes me feel as if I could stick that there spike right into him, though he is fanning my poor, hot legs with these flappers of his. Well, Mister Archie, I suppose it’s no use to fight against him. He has got the pull of us, and there’s only one thing for us to do now.”“What’s that, Pete?”“Act like Bri’ish soldiers, sir,” said the lad through his set teeth. “Hold the fort, and fight.”At that moment the cry was more audible, and the elephant gave his ears a quicker flap and said,Phoonk!

“I’m getting better fast, Pete,” cried Archie Maine, his voice sounding clearly above thesuck, suckof the elephant’s feet in the deep old tracks, and thewhisk, whiskof the green cane-sprouts that shot out on either side from the wall of verdure.

“That’s right, sir. You do comfort me. I’ve been thinking that it wasn’t fair of me to be riding comfortable here while you’ve got nothing but a bit of rope to hold on by except your balance. But, I say, it ain’t all best down here, for, my eye, ain’t it ’ot!—quite steamy.”

“Yes; this tunnel is steamy and hot,” replied Archie.

“Oh, I don’t mean the tunnel, sir. I mean Rajah’s neck and these two great fly-flaps of his keeping all the wind out. I tried lifting up one of them, but I suppose it tiddled him—fancied he had got a big fly about him, I suppose. I say, Mister Archie, ain’t it prime! He don’t seem to be going fast, but, my word, with these long legs of his how he does get over the ground! But, I say, look ye here; wouldn’t this be a jolly place if we was out for a holiday, instead of being like on furlough without leave?”

“It’s beautiful,” said Archie; for after they had travelled for some time in deep shadow, completely covered in, the jungle suddenly opened out, and their way was now between two perpendicular walls of dense green verdure. Just in front a couple of brilliantly green-and-gold, long-tailed paroquets suddenly flashed into sight as if about to alight, but, startled by the elephant, they flew off with sharp screams.

And now time after time large, wide-winged, diurnal moths and glistening butterflies flew up from where they had settled on the dew-drenched herbage and fluttered before them. Not far onward a flock of finches flew from the tops of the green banks, twittering loudly as they displayed the brilliance of the blue and yellow and green of their plumage and its varying shades. But this was only for a time. The jungle growth rose higher on either side till it shut out the sunshine, and once more the elephant-path wore the aspect of a deep, shadowy tunnel, while the air grew more moist and steamy, seeming stagnant to a degree.

“All right, sir?” cried Peter, straining to look round.

“Yes, yes, Pete. My fall shook me a bit, and seemed to bring back the old aching in my head. But don’t mind me. I feel quite happy now that we are getting farther and farther from our prison. We are free, and if I could only feel that we were going in the right direction I should not care.”

“Oh, don’t care, sir; don’t care a bit. It’s chance it—chance it. Old Rajah’s taking us somewhere, and why shouldn’t it be to headquarters?”

“It’s not likely, Pete.”

“Very well, sir. Then I will have another go. What do you say to its being to the Rajah’s palace? I don’t know where it is—only that it is somewhere in the jungle, not very far from the river. You’ve never been there, have you?”

“No, Pete, I haven’t. But, as you say, it is not far from the river.”

“Well, sir, we can’t be far from the river. It must be somewhere off to our right flank, and old Rajah here must know his way, or else he wouldn’t be going so steadily on; and the beauty of these places is that when once you are on the right road you can’t miss your way, because there ain’t no turning.”

“But we passed one turning to the right.”

“Yes, sir. That’s where the helephants went down to drink, and you see if we don’t come to another farther on. But this is splendid travelling. How he does get over the ground! And if it warn’t for the commissariat department one could go on day after day, just making a halt now and then for this chap to take in half a load of growing hay and suck in a tubful of water, and then go on again.”

“Hush! Don’t talk so, Pete.”

“Why not, sir? I am doing it to keep up your sperrits.”

“But I want to listen.”

“Hear anything, sir?”

“I am not sure. But I keep expecting to hear some of the Malays in pursuit.”

“Not likely, sir. If they are they must be coming on one of the other helephants, and I don’t believe any of them can walk as fast as this one does, so they are not likely to overtake us. We are safe enough so long as we can get old Rajah here to keep on. The only thing that fidgets me is the eating and drinking.”

“I should be glad to have some water,” said Archie, “but I can wait till we come close to the river.”

“That’s right, sir; but what about something to eat? Old Rajah seems to have thought that all that was in the basket was meant for him, and he’s tucked it inside and chucked the basket away. So don’t be hungry, sir.”

“I have two of the cakes, Pete, inside my jacket.”

“What! Oh, who’s going to mind? That’s splendid noos, sir.—Go ahead, old chap. What are you flapping your ears about for? Think you can hear water?”

“There, Pete,” said Archie eagerly, “I am nearly sure now I heard a faint cry far behind.”

“Oh, some bird, sir. Don’t you get fancying that. We are miles and miles away from where we started, and as most likely we are pretty close to the river, it’s one of those long-legged heron things, and if you hear anything else it’s like enough to be one of them big frogs or toads. If it was to-night instead of being this afternoon, I should say it was one of the crocs. But I should know him pretty well by heart.”

The great elephant went patiently trudging on, mile after mile, with the heat so intense that Archie Maine had to fight hard to keep off a growing drowsiness, and he now welcomed the fact that the portion of the jungle through which they were being carried kept on sending down trailing strands of the rotan cane and other creepers which threatened to lasso him and drag him from his seat.

But no further cry or note of bird came to suggest danger from the rear, and as the drowsiness at length passed away, the question began to arise: what was to happen when darkness came on?—for the afternoon was well spent.

It was after a long silence that Archie broached this question.

“What are we going to do when it’s dark, sir?” said Peter. “Well, I’ve been a-thinking of that—not like you have.”

“How do you know what I’ve been thinking?” asked Archie sharply.

“Well, I ain’t sure, of course, sir, but I should think you are wondering what we should do if we come across a tiger. It strikes me that we needn’t mind that—at least, not in front, for Mr Stripes wouldn’t face these ’ere two great tusks. One of them would go through him like a shot. What I’m thinking of is the making of a halt, first clearing we come to. But if we do, who’s going to tie up Rajah so that he sha’n’t go back? He might take it into his head to stop by the river-side for some water, but it strikes me, sir, that as soon as we got off he’d go back to the old stable to see if he couldn’t find something to eat and drink.”

“Hush, Pete!” cried Archie excitedly.

“What for, sir? Afraid he will understand what we are saying?”

“Hush, I say!”

“All right, sir,” said Peter, speaking in a whisper. “But he does keep cocking up his ears and listening.”

“Yes,” said Archie; “I was in doubt before, but I am sure now. It’s some one keeps on hailing us from behind. Drive him on faster, for I am sure we are pursued.”

“What! make him gallop, sir? Why, it would chuck you off directly.”

“No; I think I could keep on. We must try and leave whoever it is behind. I couldn’t bear for us to be taken again.”

“We ain’t a-going to be, sir, so long as we have these ’ere toothpicks to fight with.”

“That’s a last resource. Try to hurry the beast.”

“He won’t hurry, sir. ’Tisn’t as if I’d got one of them anchors, as they call them; and even if I had, poor old chap! I shouldn’t have the heart to stick it into him as the mahouts do.”

“It wouldn’t hurt him more than spurring does a horse, with such a thick skin.”

“But I ain’t got one of them boat-hooky tools. Look here, sir; hand me that there kris. Ain’t poisoned, is it?”

“The Doctor says they are not.”

“Let’s have it, then, sir.—Why, what game do you call this?”

For at that moment, before any experiment could be tried with the goad, a faint, unmistakable hail was heard from far behind, running as it were along deep, verdant tunnels, and Rajah, after flapping his ears heavily, uttered a low, deep sigh, stopped short, and began to tear down green branches from overhead and convey them to his mouth.

“Oh, this won’t do!” cried Peter angrily.—“Get on, sir—get on!”

The elephant uttered what sounded to be a sigh and raised one huge leg as if about to step out, but only planted it down again in the same deep hole, went through the same evolution with another leg, subsided again, and went on crunching the abundant succulent herbage.

“It’s no good, Pete,” said Archie bitterly. “They are in full chase. The elephant recognises the cry, and you will never get him to stir.”

“An obstinate beggar!” grumbled Peter. “Makes me feel as if I could stick that there spike right into him, though he is fanning my poor, hot legs with these flappers of his. Well, Mister Archie, I suppose it’s no use to fight against him. He has got the pull of us, and there’s only one thing for us to do now.”

“What’s that, Pete?”

“Act like Bri’ish soldiers, sir,” said the lad through his set teeth. “Hold the fort, and fight.”

At that moment the cry was more audible, and the elephant gave his ears a quicker flap and said,Phoonk!

Chapter Twenty Nine.Peter’s Rajah.“Ain’t it been a mistake, sir?” said Peter Pegg. “We ought to have risked it both of us together, stirred him up with the spears or the point of that kris, and made him go on.”“No mistake, Pete. He would have turned savage, and dragged you off as easily as he lifted you up, then knocked you down with his trunk and perhaps trampled you into the mud.”“Perhaps you are right, sir; and it wouldn’t have been very pleasant. But hark! There’s a helephant coming, and you can hear thesuck, suck, suckof his feet in the mud plainer and plainer. I wish whoever they are upon it would holloa again. I want to know how many that helephant’s got on board.”“I think only one,” said Archie.“Oh, well, we are not going to give up to one, sir. I was afraid—I mean, ’spected—there’d be a howdah full, all with their spears and krises, and a mahout as well. Have you got any orders to give me, sir, about dismounting?”“No; we must do the best we can from where we sit. What could we do if we got down into this narrow path full of mud-holes?”“Nothing at all, sir,” replied Peter. “I think just the same as you do. The helephant’s getting very close now, so keep telling me what you see from up there, for I can see next to nothing where I’m sitting. Now, sir,” whispered the lad, “can’t you see him yet?”“No; the path bends round.”“But you must see directly, sir.—Here, you keep quiet, Rajah, and leave them boughs alone.”“I can see now, Pete,” said Archie eagerly. “It’s the smallest elephant, with a tiger pad on its back.”“Yes, sir; but who’s on it?”“Only one man—the mahout, in a turban.”“Oh, him! That little, squatty driver! I can finish him off with one on the nose.”“No; I think—yes, it is the mahout who rode into camp at the review.”“What! him, sir? That’s Rajah’s own mahout—I mean, Rajah’s his helephant. That’s why he stopped.Phee—ew!” whistled the lad. “Why, he’s a friend of mine. I say, sir, we are not so bad off as I thought.”“You’ve met him before, then, Pete?”“Course I did, sir—day of the sham-fight. But I didn’t know he was up yonder. He must have been there all the time, though he didn’t show up. That little, squatty chap used to do all the work of taking the helephants to water, while he stopped back, too big to do any of that dirty work, and ready to ride when he was wanted.”It seemed plain enough now that when the big elephant was missing, his mahout had come in search of the huge brute himself, and directly after the small elephant he was now riding bore him close up, butting its head against Rajah’s hind-quarters and uttering a squealing, muttering sound, while, without turning his head, Rajah seemed to answer, and went on breaking off succulent boughs of leafage, to go on munching as if quite content.But, heard directly above the gruntings and mutterings of the two elephants, the fierce-looking little mahout raised himself as high as he could in his seat and burst into a furious tirade in his own tongue, not a word of which could be grasped by his hearers, but its general tenor seemed to be a series of angry questions as to how dare these two English infidels take away his elephant, and bidding them get down directly.“Can you understand all that, Mister Archie?” said Peter as the man paused to take breath.“No,” was the reply. “Can you?”“No, sir; but it’s all plain enough. Now, will you drop upon him?”“I think you had better.”“So do I,” said Peter, changing his position so that he could stand up on Rajah’s neck, steadying himself by one of the pendent boughs, and resting the butt of one of the spears upon the animal’s neck.He had just finished this when the mahout, who had evidently prepared himself for his journey by donning his turban and his showy yellow baju and sarong, recommenced his torrent of abuse.“Yah!” roared Peter as loudly as he could. “Hold your row, you ugly, snub-nosed, thick-lipped, little cock-bantam of a man!”The mahout stopped short and sat staring in wonder, with his mouth wide open and the cornersof his lips ruddy with the juice of the betel-nut he had been chewing.“How dah you?” roared Peter, in the loudest and best imitation he could produce of the Major in one of his angry fits. “How dah you? I say. How dah you? You flat-nosed little run-amucker! Speak like that to a British officer!” And he emphasised his last words by raising the spear and bringing the butt down again heavily on Rajah’s neck, his energetic action making the great elephant stir uneasily, so that the speaker was nearly dislodged. “Quiet, will you?” roared Peter, making a fresh grab at the branch he held. “Want to have me overboard?”The elephant grunted.“Yah-h-h-h-h!” roared Peter, raising the spear he held; and poising it after the fashion he had learned from the Malays, he seemed about to hurl it at the little mahout, whose head and shoulders he could see plainly now just beyond Rajah’s shabby little tail. “You dare to say another word, and I will pin you where you sit, like the miserable little beetle you are! Now then.—Here, steady, Rajah!—Hold tight, Mister Archie! I am coming to you; but just you make a show of that other spear. You needn’t get up, but make believe to be about to chuck it at him if he isn’t pretty careful.”Archie held on more tightly to the rope girths by which he had kept his position so long, while Peter rather unsteadily joined him, bringing himself so much nearer to the mahout that he could have pretty well touched him had he extended his spear.“I say, Mister Archie,” he said, “if old Rajah takes it into his head to move on now, I shall pitch right on to old Chocolate there.—Yah-h!” he roared again.The mahout, who had apparently begun to recover from his astonishment, had changed his ankus from one hand to the other, and was in the act of drawing his kris, when Peter yelled at him again and made so fierce a thrust with his spear that all the little fellow’s pugnacity died out, or, as it were, passed away in a shriek of fear.“Ah, that’s better,” cried Peter. “Now then, you have got to do what I tell you.”The mahout’s eyes rolled as he thrust back his kris into its sheath, the man’s face turning from a rich, pale-brown hue to a dirty, pallid mud colour.“Here, give us that kris, Mister Archie,” continued Peter in a blustering tone.“You are not going to use it, Pete?” half-whispered the subaltern.“You will see, sir,” cried the lad fiercely; and then he almost roared, “He’d better not give me any of his nonsense!” And taking the kris in his hand, he held the blade threateningly towards the mahout and beckoned to him to come.His gestures were so plain, and the manifestations with the little, wave-bladed dagger so easily comprehensible, that the poor, shivering, little wretch dragged himself out of his seat and knelt upon the head of the smaller elephant and bowed down with his hands extended as if asking for mercy.“Ah, you know you deserve it!” roared Peter. “Now then, give me that weapon—quick!”The man raised his head a little and looked up at the lad, who was making a horrible grimace and rolling his eyes; and then seeming to fully grasp his meaning, he quickly drew kris and sheath from the folds of his sarong, and held them out to Peter, who snatched them away and handed them to Archie.“Now then,” shouted Peter, “don’t you pretend you can’t understand plain English, because if you do I’ll—” He raised the spear on high and made as if to deliver a thrust, with the effect that the mahout uttered a shriek of fear and banged his forehead heavily down between his hands. “Now get up,” roared Peter; and the man raised his head and displayed a face and lips quivering with fear, shrinking sharply as the lad reached out and laid the blade of the spear upon the thinly covered shoulder. “Now, you understand: if you try to play any games you will get this. D’ye ’ear?”The poor fellow uttered a few words in his own tongue, and raised his hands together towards Peter as if begging for mercy.What followed took some considerable time and proved a difficult task, for the mahout was almost beside himself with fear; but as soon as he grasped Peter’s meaning he set to work excitedly, and with the cleverness born of experience he loosened the ropes of the tiger pad upon the lesser elephant, unlaced them, and with Peter’s assistance dragged it on to the back of the larger beast, Archie having changed his place to Rajah’s neck, where he sat facing the workers with a spear in each hand.“Don’t look so good-tempered, sir,” Peter stopped for a few moments to say. “Squeege your eyes up, sir, and show your teeth, as if you meant to eat the little beggar.”“Oh, nonsense!” replied Archie. “You have regularly mastered him now. The poor little wretch is half-dead with fright.”“Yuss!” growled Peter, turning to give a savage look at his panting little companion. “He knows what Great Britons are, sir; and it’s lucky for him he does.—Now then,” he roared, “let’s get this job done.”The mahout winced, and after a time the task of securing the big, comfortable pad was finished, and, in obedience to Peter, Archie took his seat upon it, while the mahout made a gesture as if asking whether he should go back now to his old seat on the lesser elephant, which all the time was following Rajah’s example and making a hearty meal of the succulent leaves.“What does he mean by that, Mister Archie?” whispered Peter. “No, no, don’t tell me! I see;” and turning to the mahout, he roared out “No!” and pointed forward towards Rajah’s neck. “That’s your place,” he shouted; and the little fellow, grasping Peter’s meaning, crept past Archie and took his seat, settling himself, with a sigh, with his legs beneath the great beast’s ears.The big elephant, though apparently intent upon demolishing as many leaves as he could contain, proved himself to have been busy with his little, pig-like eyes the while, for as the mahout took his seat he began muttering and chuntering again, and dropping a bunch of the green food, he turned up his trunk and began to pass it over the body of his rider.The look of fear had died out of the mahout’s countenance as he turned his face to the two Englishmen, and he nodded and smiled rather pitifully, as he seemed to be feeling now that his life was going to be spared.“All right!” shouted Peter; and the mahout winced again as he drew his ankus from where he had tucked it in the folds of his sarong, as if to signify that he was ready to perform any duties his masters wished.“That’s done it, Mister Archie,” said Peter. “One can’t understand everybody’s lingo, but good, loud English goes a long way if you put plenty of powder behind it. You see now.—Forward!” roared Peter, and the mahout, who had been nervously watching his every movement, turned and spoke to Rajah, when the monster moved on at once into the deep, rich glow that was now penetrating the tunnel-like road, while the lesser elephant stayed for a few minutes to collect a good-sized bundle of twigs, and then moved after its fellow as contentedly as if everything were right.“Then you are going to make him take us right back to camp, Pete?” said Archie.“Yes, sir; that’s the marching orders, if we can do it; but it won’t be very long before it’s dark.”“Yes; it will soon be sundown. How long do you think the elephant will go on?”“I d’know, sir. It’s chance it—chance it, just as it’s been ever since we started this morning. I say, though, this ’ere’s more comfortable than riding barebacked, holding on to a rope, sir, eh?”“Pete, my lad,” said Archie, with a sigh, “it’s wonderful! How did you manage it all?”“Oh, sir,” said the lad modestly, “it’s only having a bit of a try. One never knows what one can do till you sets to work, and when you puts your back to it and goes in for chance it as well, it mostly turns out pretty tidy.”“Yes, Pete; but what worries me now is what we are going to do when the elephant stops to rest or sleep.”“Don’t you worry your head about that, Mister Archie. I know you are weak and pulled down, but just you pay a bit more heed to what I say. It’s what you ought to do now, and what we must do—chance it, sir, chance it, same as I’m doing about something else.”“What else?” said Archie wearily, as he let his aching body sway with the movement of the great steed.“About whether this is the right way or the wrong, sir. I don’t know; you don’t know. But perhaps old Rajah does, so what we have got to do, as I said before, is to keep our eyes on that little bantam of a Malay, and chance it, sir—chance it.”

“Ain’t it been a mistake, sir?” said Peter Pegg. “We ought to have risked it both of us together, stirred him up with the spears or the point of that kris, and made him go on.”

“No mistake, Pete. He would have turned savage, and dragged you off as easily as he lifted you up, then knocked you down with his trunk and perhaps trampled you into the mud.”

“Perhaps you are right, sir; and it wouldn’t have been very pleasant. But hark! There’s a helephant coming, and you can hear thesuck, suck, suckof his feet in the mud plainer and plainer. I wish whoever they are upon it would holloa again. I want to know how many that helephant’s got on board.”

“I think only one,” said Archie.

“Oh, well, we are not going to give up to one, sir. I was afraid—I mean, ’spected—there’d be a howdah full, all with their spears and krises, and a mahout as well. Have you got any orders to give me, sir, about dismounting?”

“No; we must do the best we can from where we sit. What could we do if we got down into this narrow path full of mud-holes?”

“Nothing at all, sir,” replied Peter. “I think just the same as you do. The helephant’s getting very close now, so keep telling me what you see from up there, for I can see next to nothing where I’m sitting. Now, sir,” whispered the lad, “can’t you see him yet?”

“No; the path bends round.”

“But you must see directly, sir.—Here, you keep quiet, Rajah, and leave them boughs alone.”

“I can see now, Pete,” said Archie eagerly. “It’s the smallest elephant, with a tiger pad on its back.”

“Yes, sir; but who’s on it?”

“Only one man—the mahout, in a turban.”

“Oh, him! That little, squatty driver! I can finish him off with one on the nose.”

“No; I think—yes, it is the mahout who rode into camp at the review.”

“What! him, sir? That’s Rajah’s own mahout—I mean, Rajah’s his helephant. That’s why he stopped.Phee—ew!” whistled the lad. “Why, he’s a friend of mine. I say, sir, we are not so bad off as I thought.”

“You’ve met him before, then, Pete?”

“Course I did, sir—day of the sham-fight. But I didn’t know he was up yonder. He must have been there all the time, though he didn’t show up. That little, squatty chap used to do all the work of taking the helephants to water, while he stopped back, too big to do any of that dirty work, and ready to ride when he was wanted.”

It seemed plain enough now that when the big elephant was missing, his mahout had come in search of the huge brute himself, and directly after the small elephant he was now riding bore him close up, butting its head against Rajah’s hind-quarters and uttering a squealing, muttering sound, while, without turning his head, Rajah seemed to answer, and went on breaking off succulent boughs of leafage, to go on munching as if quite content.

But, heard directly above the gruntings and mutterings of the two elephants, the fierce-looking little mahout raised himself as high as he could in his seat and burst into a furious tirade in his own tongue, not a word of which could be grasped by his hearers, but its general tenor seemed to be a series of angry questions as to how dare these two English infidels take away his elephant, and bidding them get down directly.

“Can you understand all that, Mister Archie?” said Peter as the man paused to take breath.

“No,” was the reply. “Can you?”

“No, sir; but it’s all plain enough. Now, will you drop upon him?”

“I think you had better.”

“So do I,” said Peter, changing his position so that he could stand up on Rajah’s neck, steadying himself by one of the pendent boughs, and resting the butt of one of the spears upon the animal’s neck.

He had just finished this when the mahout, who had evidently prepared himself for his journey by donning his turban and his showy yellow baju and sarong, recommenced his torrent of abuse.

“Yah!” roared Peter as loudly as he could. “Hold your row, you ugly, snub-nosed, thick-lipped, little cock-bantam of a man!”

The mahout stopped short and sat staring in wonder, with his mouth wide open and the cornersof his lips ruddy with the juice of the betel-nut he had been chewing.

“How dah you?” roared Peter, in the loudest and best imitation he could produce of the Major in one of his angry fits. “How dah you? I say. How dah you? You flat-nosed little run-amucker! Speak like that to a British officer!” And he emphasised his last words by raising the spear and bringing the butt down again heavily on Rajah’s neck, his energetic action making the great elephant stir uneasily, so that the speaker was nearly dislodged. “Quiet, will you?” roared Peter, making a fresh grab at the branch he held. “Want to have me overboard?”

The elephant grunted.

“Yah-h-h-h-h!” roared Peter, raising the spear he held; and poising it after the fashion he had learned from the Malays, he seemed about to hurl it at the little mahout, whose head and shoulders he could see plainly now just beyond Rajah’s shabby little tail. “You dare to say another word, and I will pin you where you sit, like the miserable little beetle you are! Now then.—Here, steady, Rajah!—Hold tight, Mister Archie! I am coming to you; but just you make a show of that other spear. You needn’t get up, but make believe to be about to chuck it at him if he isn’t pretty careful.”

Archie held on more tightly to the rope girths by which he had kept his position so long, while Peter rather unsteadily joined him, bringing himself so much nearer to the mahout that he could have pretty well touched him had he extended his spear.

“I say, Mister Archie,” he said, “if old Rajah takes it into his head to move on now, I shall pitch right on to old Chocolate there.—Yah-h!” he roared again.

The mahout, who had apparently begun to recover from his astonishment, had changed his ankus from one hand to the other, and was in the act of drawing his kris, when Peter yelled at him again and made so fierce a thrust with his spear that all the little fellow’s pugnacity died out, or, as it were, passed away in a shriek of fear.

“Ah, that’s better,” cried Peter. “Now then, you have got to do what I tell you.”

The mahout’s eyes rolled as he thrust back his kris into its sheath, the man’s face turning from a rich, pale-brown hue to a dirty, pallid mud colour.

“Here, give us that kris, Mister Archie,” continued Peter in a blustering tone.

“You are not going to use it, Pete?” half-whispered the subaltern.

“You will see, sir,” cried the lad fiercely; and then he almost roared, “He’d better not give me any of his nonsense!” And taking the kris in his hand, he held the blade threateningly towards the mahout and beckoned to him to come.

His gestures were so plain, and the manifestations with the little, wave-bladed dagger so easily comprehensible, that the poor, shivering, little wretch dragged himself out of his seat and knelt upon the head of the smaller elephant and bowed down with his hands extended as if asking for mercy.

“Ah, you know you deserve it!” roared Peter. “Now then, give me that weapon—quick!”

The man raised his head a little and looked up at the lad, who was making a horrible grimace and rolling his eyes; and then seeming to fully grasp his meaning, he quickly drew kris and sheath from the folds of his sarong, and held them out to Peter, who snatched them away and handed them to Archie.

“Now then,” shouted Peter, “don’t you pretend you can’t understand plain English, because if you do I’ll—” He raised the spear on high and made as if to deliver a thrust, with the effect that the mahout uttered a shriek of fear and banged his forehead heavily down between his hands. “Now get up,” roared Peter; and the man raised his head and displayed a face and lips quivering with fear, shrinking sharply as the lad reached out and laid the blade of the spear upon the thinly covered shoulder. “Now, you understand: if you try to play any games you will get this. D’ye ’ear?”

The poor fellow uttered a few words in his own tongue, and raised his hands together towards Peter as if begging for mercy.

What followed took some considerable time and proved a difficult task, for the mahout was almost beside himself with fear; but as soon as he grasped Peter’s meaning he set to work excitedly, and with the cleverness born of experience he loosened the ropes of the tiger pad upon the lesser elephant, unlaced them, and with Peter’s assistance dragged it on to the back of the larger beast, Archie having changed his place to Rajah’s neck, where he sat facing the workers with a spear in each hand.

“Don’t look so good-tempered, sir,” Peter stopped for a few moments to say. “Squeege your eyes up, sir, and show your teeth, as if you meant to eat the little beggar.”

“Oh, nonsense!” replied Archie. “You have regularly mastered him now. The poor little wretch is half-dead with fright.”

“Yuss!” growled Peter, turning to give a savage look at his panting little companion. “He knows what Great Britons are, sir; and it’s lucky for him he does.—Now then,” he roared, “let’s get this job done.”

The mahout winced, and after a time the task of securing the big, comfortable pad was finished, and, in obedience to Peter, Archie took his seat upon it, while the mahout made a gesture as if asking whether he should go back now to his old seat on the lesser elephant, which all the time was following Rajah’s example and making a hearty meal of the succulent leaves.

“What does he mean by that, Mister Archie?” whispered Peter. “No, no, don’t tell me! I see;” and turning to the mahout, he roared out “No!” and pointed forward towards Rajah’s neck. “That’s your place,” he shouted; and the little fellow, grasping Peter’s meaning, crept past Archie and took his seat, settling himself, with a sigh, with his legs beneath the great beast’s ears.

The big elephant, though apparently intent upon demolishing as many leaves as he could contain, proved himself to have been busy with his little, pig-like eyes the while, for as the mahout took his seat he began muttering and chuntering again, and dropping a bunch of the green food, he turned up his trunk and began to pass it over the body of his rider.

The look of fear had died out of the mahout’s countenance as he turned his face to the two Englishmen, and he nodded and smiled rather pitifully, as he seemed to be feeling now that his life was going to be spared.

“All right!” shouted Peter; and the mahout winced again as he drew his ankus from where he had tucked it in the folds of his sarong, as if to signify that he was ready to perform any duties his masters wished.

“That’s done it, Mister Archie,” said Peter. “One can’t understand everybody’s lingo, but good, loud English goes a long way if you put plenty of powder behind it. You see now.—Forward!” roared Peter, and the mahout, who had been nervously watching his every movement, turned and spoke to Rajah, when the monster moved on at once into the deep, rich glow that was now penetrating the tunnel-like road, while the lesser elephant stayed for a few minutes to collect a good-sized bundle of twigs, and then moved after its fellow as contentedly as if everything were right.

“Then you are going to make him take us right back to camp, Pete?” said Archie.

“Yes, sir; that’s the marching orders, if we can do it; but it won’t be very long before it’s dark.”

“Yes; it will soon be sundown. How long do you think the elephant will go on?”

“I d’know, sir. It’s chance it—chance it, just as it’s been ever since we started this morning. I say, though, this ’ere’s more comfortable than riding barebacked, holding on to a rope, sir, eh?”

“Pete, my lad,” said Archie, with a sigh, “it’s wonderful! How did you manage it all?”

“Oh, sir,” said the lad modestly, “it’s only having a bit of a try. One never knows what one can do till you sets to work, and when you puts your back to it and goes in for chance it as well, it mostly turns out pretty tidy.”

“Yes, Pete; but what worries me now is what we are going to do when the elephant stops to rest or sleep.”

“Don’t you worry your head about that, Mister Archie. I know you are weak and pulled down, but just you pay a bit more heed to what I say. It’s what you ought to do now, and what we must do—chance it, sir, chance it, same as I’m doing about something else.”

“What else?” said Archie wearily, as he let his aching body sway with the movement of the great steed.

“About whether this is the right way or the wrong, sir. I don’t know; you don’t know. But perhaps old Rajah does, so what we have got to do, as I said before, is to keep our eyes on that little bantam of a Malay, and chance it, sir—chance it.”

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