Having by Caspar's ingenious artifice obtained as much water as they
wanted, the besieged felt better able to endure their irksome situation.
They were resigning themselves with as much philosophy as they could
command to bear it a little longer, when to their great astonishment
they were treated to more water than they wanted, and from a source as
curious as was unexpected.
Whether the elephant had taken a hint from seeing the flask plunged down
into the water, or whether the idea had occurred to it without being
suggested by anything in particular, it would be difficult to say.
Certain it is, that just after the last flask-full had been pulled up,
and before the eddying ripples had subsided from the surface, the rogue
was seen to make a rush into the water, at the same time deeply
submerging his proboscis, as if about to take a drink.
For some moments he remained in a stationary attitude, apparently
filling his capacious stomach with the fluid.
There was no reason why he should not be as thirsty as themselves; and
the spectators in the tree had no other thought, than that the great
quadruped had waded into the pool simply for the purpose of quenching
his thirst.
There was something about his movements, however, and the style in which
he had set about sucking up the water, which betrayed a different
determination; and it was not long before this was evinced by a
performance which, under other circumstances, might have evoked laughter
from those who witnessed it. In this instance, however, the spectators
were themselves the victims of the joke--if joke it might be termed--and
during its continuance, not one of the three felt the slightest
inclination to indulge in mirth. It was thus that the elephant acted:--
Having filled its trunk with the water of the stream, it raised it
aloft. Then pointing it towards the tree, and even directing it with as
much coolness and precision as an astronomer would have used in
adjusting his telescope, it sent the fluid in a drenching stream into
the faces of the three individuals whom it was holding in siege. All
three, who chanced to be sitting close together, were at the same
instant, and alike, the victims of this unexpected deluge; and before
any of them could have counted half a score, they were wet from head to
foot, every rag upon their backs, and fronts too, becoming as thoroughly
saturated as if they had been exposed for hours to a drenching rain
storm!
But the elephant was not satisfied with giving them a single
shower-bath. As soon as its first supply was exhausted, it once more
immersed its pliant sucker, re-filled the reservoir, took a good aim,
and ejected the fluid into their faces.
In this way the creature continued drawing up the water from the stream,
and squirting it from its vast muscular syringe, until it had douched
them nearly a dozen times.
Their situation was anything but enviable; for the watery stream,
propelled against them with as much force as from the hose-pipe of a
fire-engine, almost washed them from their unstable seats; to say
nothing of the great discomfort which the douche occasioned them.
It would be difficult to guess what could be the object of the elephant
in this curious performance. Perhaps it may have conceived a hope
either of driving them out of the tree, or forcibly washing them from
the branches; or perhaps it merely designed to make their situation as
uncomfortable as possible, and thus to some extent satisfy its spite.
It would be equally difficult to tell how long the performance might
have lasted. Perhaps for hours longer--since the supply of water was
inexhaustible; but it was brought to a conclusion which neither the
great pachyderm himself foresaw, nor they who were the subjects of his
aqueous dispensation.