Just while it was in the midst of its performance, keeping its
_water-battery_ in full play, and apparently with malicious enjoyment,
it was seen all at once to desist; and then its huge body commenced
rocking from side to side, one shoulder now upheaving, then the other,
while the long trunk was swept in circles through the air, at the same
time emitting, instead of water, shrill sounds that proclaimed either
pain or terror.
What could it mean? The quadruped was evidently smitten with some
sudden fear; but who and what was the enemy it dreaded? So mentally
inquired Karl and Caspar; but before either had time to shape his
thought into an interrogative speech, the shikaree had answered it.
"He-ho!" he exclaimed. "Goot! vair goot!--praise to the God of the
Great Gangee! See, sahibs, the rogue he go down, down--he sinkee in de
quicksand that near swalley Ossaroo; he-ho; sinkee! he sinkee!"
Karl and Caspar easily comprehended the meaning of Ossaroo's broken but
exultant speeches. Bending their eyes on the brute below, and watching
its movements, they at once perceived that the shikaree had spoken the
truth. The elephant was evidently sinking in the quicksand!
They had noticed that when it first entered the bed of the stream, the
water had not reached far above its knees. Now it was up to its sides,
and slowly but gradually rising higher. Its violent struggles,
moreover--the partial and alternate raising of its shoulders, its
excited shrieks--and the proboscis, rapidly extended now to this side,
now to that, as if searching to grasp some support--all proved the truth
of Ossaroo's assertion--the rogue was sinking in the quicksand. And
rapidly was the creature going down. Before the spectators had been
watching it five minutes, the water lapped up nearly to the level of its
back, and then inch by inch, and foot by foot, it rose higher, until the
round shoulders were submerged, and only the head and its long
trumpet-like extension appeared above the surface.
Soon the shoulders ceased to play; and the vast body exhibited no other
motion, save that gentle descent by which it was being drawn down into
the bowels of the earth!
The trunk still kept up its vibratory movement, now violently beating
the water into foam, and now feebly oscillating, all the while breathing
forth its accents of agony.
At length the upturned head and smooth protuberant jaws sank beneath the
surface; and only the proboscis appeared, standing erect out of the
water like a gigantic Bologna sausage. It had ceased to give out the
shrill trumpet scream; but a loud breathing could still be heard,
interrupted at intervals by a gurgling sound.
Karl and Caspar kept their seats upon the tree, looking down upon the
strange scene with feelings of awe depicted in their faces. Not so the
shikaree, who was no longer aloft. As soon as he had seen the elephant
fairly locked in the deadly embrace of that quicksand that had so nearly
engulfed his own precious person, he lowered himself nimbly down from
the branches.
For some moments he stood upon the bank, watching the futile efforts
which the animal was making to free itself, all the while talking to it,
and taunting it with spiteful speeches--for Ossaroo had been
particularly indignant at the loss of his skirt. When at length the
last twelve inches of the elephant's trunk was all that remained above
the surface, the shikaree could hold back no longer. Drawing his long
knife, he rushed out into the water; and, with one clean cut, severed
the muscular mass from its supporting stem, as a sickle would have
levelled some soft succulent weed.
The parted tube sank instantly to the bottom; a few red bubbles rose to
the surface; and these were the last tokens that proclaimed the exit of
that great elephant from the surface of the earth. It had gone down
into the deep sands, there to become fossilised--perhaps after the lapse
of many ages to be turned up again by the spade and pick-axe of some
wondering quarry-man.
Thus by a singular accident were our adventurers disembarrassed of a
disagreeable neighbour--or rather, a dangerous enemy--so dangerous,
indeed, that had not some chance of the kind turned up in their favour,
it is difficult to conjecture how they would have got rid of it. It was
no longer a question of pouring bullets into its body, and killing it in
that way. The spilling of their powder had spoiled that project; and
the three charges that still remained to them might not have been
sufficient with guns of so small a calibre as theirs.
No doubt in time such gallant hunters as Caspar and Ossaroo, and so
ingenious a contriver as Karl, would have devised some way to circumvent
the rogue, and make an end of him; but for all that they were very well
pleased at the strange circumstance that had relieved them of the
necessity, and they congratulated themselves on such a fortunate result.
On hearing them talking together, and perceiving that they were no
longer in the tree, Fritz, who had all this while been skulking only a
few paces from the spot, now emerged from his hiding-place, and came
running up. Little did Fritz suspect, while swimming across the straits
to rejoin his masters, that the huge quadruped which had so frequently
given him chase was at that moment so very near him; and that his own
claws, while cutting the water, came within an inch of scratching that
terrible trunk, now _truncated_ to a _frustrum_ of its former self!
But although Fritz had no knowledge of strange incident that had
occurred during his absence--and may have been wondering in what
direction the enemy had gone off--while swimming across the straits, the
red colour of the water at a particular place, or more likely the scent
of blood upon it, admonished him that some sanguinary scene had
transpired; and drew from him a series of excited yelps as he buoyantly
breasted the wave.
Fritz came in for a share of the congratulations. Although the faithful
creature had retreated on each occasion of his being attacked, no one
thought of casting a slur upon his canine courage. He had only
exhibited a wise discretion: for what chance would he have stood against
such a formidable adversary? He had done better, therefore, by taking
to his heels; for had he foolishly stood his ground, and got killed in
the first encounter by the obelisk, the elephant might still have been
alive, and besieging them in the tree. Besides, it was Fritz who had
sounded the first note of warning, and thus given time to prepare for
the reception of the assailant.
All of the party regarded Fritz as worthy of reward; and Ossaroo had
made up his mind that he should have it, in the shape of a dinner upon
elephant's trunk. But in wading back into the stream, the shikaree
perceived to his chagrin that the brave dog must be disappointed: since
the piece which he had so skilfully lopped off, had followed the
fortunes of the part from which it had been severed, and was now far
below the surface of the sand!
Ossaroo made no attempt to dig it up again. He had a wholesome dread of
that treacherous footing; and treading it gingerly, he lost no time in
returning to the bank, and following the sahibs--who had already taken
their departure from the water's edge, and were proceeding in the
direction of the ruined hut.