"An old rogue?" said Caspar, repeating the words of the shikaree. "What
do you mean by that, Ossy?"
"What you Feringhee, sahib, call _rogue_ elephant."
"Oh! an elephant!" echoed Karl and Caspar--both considerably relieved at
this natural explanation of what had appeared so like a supernatural
apparition.
"Certainly the thing looked like one," continued Caspar.
"But how could an elephant enter this valley?"
Ossaroo could not answer this question. He was himself equally puzzled
by the appearance of the huge quadruped; and still rather inclined to
the belief that it was some of his trinity of Brahminee gods, that had
for the nonce assumed the elephantine form. For that reason he made no
attempt to explain the presence of such an animal in the valley.
"It is possible for one to have come up here from the lower country,"
remarked Karl, reflectively.
"But how could he get into the valley?" again inquired Caspar.
"In the same way as we got in ourselves," was Karl's reply; "up the
glacier and through the gorge."
"But the crevasse that hinders us from getting out? You forget that,
brother? An elephant could no more cross it than he could fly; surely
not?"
"Surely not," rejoined Karl. "I did not say that he could have crossed
the crevasse."
"Oh! you mean that he may have come up here before we did?"
"Exactly so. If it be an elephant we have seen--and what else can it
be?" pursued Karl, no longer yielding to a belief in the supernatural
character of their nocturnal visitant--"it must of course have got into
the valley before us. The wonder is our having seen no signs of such an
animal before. You, Caspar, have been about more than any of us. Did
you never, in your rambles, observe anything like an elephant's track?"
"Never. It never occurred to me to look for such a thing. Who would
have thought of a great elephant having climbed up here? One would
fancy such unwieldy creatures quite incapable of ascending a mountain."
"Ah! there you would be in error: for, singular as it may appear, the
elephant is a wonderful climber, and can make his way almost anywhere
that a man can go. It is a fact, that in the island of Ceylon the wild
elephants are often found upon the top of Adam's Peak--to scale which is
trying to the nerves of the stoutest travellers. It would not be
surprising to find one here. Rather, I may say, it _is_ not: for now I
feel certain what we have just seen is an elephant, since it can be
nothing else. He may have entered this valley before us--by straying up
the glacier as we did, and crossing the chasm by the rock bridge--which
I know he could have done as well as we. Or else," continued Karl, in
his endeavour to account for the presence of the huge creature, "he may
have come here long ago, even before there was any crevasse. What is
there improbable in his having been here many years--perhaps all his
life, and that may be a hundred years or more?"
"I thought," said Caspar, "that elephants were only found on the plains,
where the vegetation is tropical and luxuriant."
"That is another popular error," replied Karl. "So far from affecting
tropical plains, the elephant prefers to dwell high up on the mountains;
and whenever he has the opportunity, he climbs thither. He likes a
moderately cool atmosphere--where he may be less persecuted by flies and
other troublesome insects: since, notwithstanding his great strength and
the thickness of his hide, so small a creature as a fly can give him the
greatest annoyance. Like the tiger, he is by no means exclusively a
tropical animal; but can live, and thrive too, in a cool, elevated
region, or in a high latitude of the temperate zone."
Karl again expressed surprise that none of them had before that time
observed any traces of this gigantic quadruped, that must have been
their neighbour ever since the commencement of their involuntary
residence in the valley. Of course this surprise was fully shared by
Caspar. Ossaroo participated in it, but only to a very slight degree.
The shikaree was still inclined towards indulging in his superstitious
belief that the creature they had seen was not of the earth, but some
apparition of Brahma or Vishnu.
Without attempting to combat this absurd fancy, his companions continued
to search for an explanation of the strange circumstance of their not
having sooner encountered the elephant.
"After all," suggested Caspar, "there is nothing so strange about it.
There are many large tracts of the valley we have not explored; for
instance, that wide stretch of black forest that lies at its upper end.
Neither of us has ever been through there since the first two days, when
we followed the deer all round, and went afterwards to examine the
cliff. For myself, I never strayed that way while hunting--because I
always found the game in the open grounds near the lake. Now the
elephant may have his lair in that piece of forest, and only come out at
night. As for tracks, no doubt there are plenty, but I never thought of
looking for them. You know, brother, we have been too busy in making
our tree-bridge, and afterwards exploring the cavern, to think of much
else."
Karl admitted the truth of these observations; for it was as Caspar had
alleged. During the whole time of their residence in the valley, the
minds of all three, filled with anxiety about the future, had been
keenly bent upon devising some means of escape; and on this account they
had given very little attention to anything that did not in some way
contribute to that end. Even Caspar, in his hunting excursions, had not
gone over one-half of the valley; nor had these excursions been very
numerous. In three or four days he had procured as much _meat_ as was
necessary. This had been carefully cured by Ossaroo, and formed the
staple of their daily food. Only upon rare occasions were the guns
afterwards used to procure a little fresh provision--such as a brace of
wild duets from the lake, or one of the smaller game animals which could
be found almost any morning within gunshot distance of the hut. For
these reasons many parts of the valley had been left unvisited; and it
was deemed possible enough for even a great elephant to have been all
the time dwelling within its boundaries, unseen by any of the party.
Indulging in these conjectures, all three remained awake for more than
an hour; but as the subject of their speculations appeared to have gone
altogether away, they gradually came to the conclusion that he was not
going to return at least for that night--and their confidence being thus
restored, they once more betook themselves to sleep--resolved in future
to keep a sharp lookout for the dangerous neighbour that had so
unexpectedly presented himself to their view.