IN A TRAP
All the other elephants waited while Tusker stood there, swaying to
and fro in the jungle thinking. Some people say animals do not think,
but I believe they do. At least it is thinking to them, though it may
not seem so to us.
"Well, are we going to stay here all day?" asked a young elephant, who
was crowded in among the others at the back of the herd. "I want to
get to some place where I can have palm nuts to eat. I am hungry.
Let's go on!"
"Be quiet!" called Umboo's father to this elephant. "Don't you see
that Tusker is trying to think, and find the best way out of danger
for us. Wait a bit."
So the elephants waited, and finally Tusker with a shake of his big
ears, said:
"I never knew anything like this before. Always when we have come to
the salt springs the way has been clear. There have been no man-made
fences to stop us. But, since they are here it must be that it is not
meant for us to go where the fences are. Very well. I know how to get
to the salt springs without going near these things across our paths.
We can go straight ahead, between the two fences!"
And that was just what the hunters, who had put up the fences in the
jungle wanted. They wanted the elephants to go along between them,
for, at the places where the fences came to an end, was a strong
stockade, or trap, to catch the wild elephants.
Umboo, and none of the other elephants knew this at the time, but they
learned it later, to their sorrow, some of them. When hunters in the
Indian jungle wish to capture a lot of wild elephants, to work for
them, or to be turned into trick elephants for the circus, the hunters
do this.
First they find the place where, each year, the wild elephants come
down from the hills, or out of the jungle, to taste the salt. For, as
I told you, elephants must have salt once in a while, just as horses,
cows and sheep on the farm need it. The elephants will travel a long
way, and brave many dangers, to get salt.
Knowing this the hunters build long fences on each side of the road
leading down from the hills to the salt spring. When the elephants
crash their way through the jungle, on their way to the salt, they
come to one of the fences. This turns them aside, and they go along
until they come to another.
Then, just as did Tusker, and his friend Umboo and the other
elephants, being between two strong fences, there is only one other
thing to do. They can go between them toward the salt spring, or away
from it. But, as they want salt very much, the big animals tramp along
the two miles of fence toward the salty place, and, knowing the
elephants will do this, the hunters are ready for them. Now I shall
tell you what happened.
For a few minutes longer Tusker stood swaying in the jungle. He was
trying to think what was the best thing for him to do, for he was the
leader of the herd, and they would all do as he did, just as a flock
of sheep will follow the old ram, even on the dangerous railroad track
sometimes.
"Come!" trumpeted Tusker through his trunk, "we will go between the
two fences to the salt springs."
"Is the salt good, Mother?" asked Umboo, for he had only had a little
in his life, and as I told you, hardly remembered it.
"Very good, indeed," said Mrs. Stumptail. "You shall soon see and
taste for yourself."
So along through the jungle, half way between the two lines of fence,
went the elephants, little and big. They had not gone very far before,
all of a sudden, Tusker stopped and raised his trunk in the air.
"Be careful!" he cried. "I smell danger! I smell the man smell! Oh,
elephants, I fear something is going to happen."
And something did happen.
From behind the herd of elephants, and from both sides of them, came a
terrible noise. It was as though a hundred thunderbolts had been shot
off at once, and a terrible clapping sound was heard, as if the wings
of great birds were flapping.
These noises were made by hunters up in the trees on each side of, and
behind, the elephants. The hunters fired their guns, making the noise
like small thunder bolts and other black men banged pieces of dry wood
together, making the clapping sound.
The elephants were very much frightened. Never before had they heard
anything like this.
"Oh, what is it?" cried Umboo, keeping close to his mother. "What is
it all about. Does the salt spring make that noise?"
"No, it isn't that," said Mrs. Stumptail. "That must be the danger of
which Tusker spoke. Be quiet and listen to what he is saying."
The old elephant leader had to trumpet through his trunk as loudly as
he could to be heard above the noise of the guns and clappers.
"There is danger, O Elephants!" cried Tusker. "The man-smell is all
around us, and the terrible noises are behind, and on both sides of
us. There is only one place that is quiet, and that is straight ahead.
We must go that way! Forward!"
And straight ahead rushed the elephants, toward the place where there
was no noise. As they went on Mr. Stumptail looked to either side and
saw where the two lines of fence came together into a place like a big
ring, and the ring also had a fence around it.
"Look, Tusker!" cried Umboo's father. "Is it all right to go there
where the fence is?"
"It is the only place to go to get away from the hunters," said
Tusker. "They are behind us and on both sides. Only ahead of us is
there none. We must go that way!"
And this is just what the hunters wanted. They made no noise in front
of the elephants on purpose so they would rush that way. For, in that
direction, was the strongly fenced-in stockade, or trap, with long
barriers on each side leading to it.
To the elephants, who were frightened by the shooting and clapping
noises behind, and on both sides of them, the silence in front of them
seemed just what they wanted. Toward it they ran, not knowing that the
trap was waiting for them.
Into it they rushed, the noise behind them sounding louder and louder
now, with more guns shooting and more clappers clapping. Into the
quiet of the stockade rushed Tusker, Mr. and Mrs. Stumptail, Umboo,
Keedah and all the others.
And then, when they were safely in the trap, a great big door of logs,
as strong as the fence of trees of which the stockade was built, fell
with a bang behind them, shutting the elephants in. Then the shooting
and clapping stopped.
For a moment it was quiet in the jungle, the only sound being the wind
blowing in the trees, or the rubbing of the rough-skinned elephants'
bodies, one against the other, making a queer, shuffling noise. The
big animals crowded together in the middle of the stockade trap, and
waited for what would happen next.
"Is this the salt spring, Mother?" asked Umboo.
"No," she sadly answered. "It is not. This is dreadful!"
"What has happened?" asked Umboo. "And why do Tusker and the other big
elephants look so scared?"
"Because we are caught in a trap," answered the boy elephant's mother.
"I have heard tell of these places, but I was never in one before."
"Can't we get out?" Umboo wanted to know.
"Tusker will try, and so will your father," said Mrs. Stumptail. "All
the strong elephants will try to break out. Perhaps it will be all
right yet. Listen, Tusker is going to speak."
Tusker, the big bull, raised his trunk and said:
"O, Elephants! I am sorry, but I seem to have led you into a trap. I
did not know it was here. I tried to lead you away from the man-smell
and away from the danger, but I have led you into worse. Now I will
try to get you out. I see what has happened. The hunters made their
fences in the jungle so we could only come this way--this way into the
trap. But we shall break out!
"Come over here by me, Mr. Stumptail, and you too, Mr. One Tusk, and
you also, Bumper Head. Come, we will rush at the fence of this trap
and batter it down. In that way we can get out. We shall fool these
hunters yet. Come, we will batter down the fence and once more we will
be in our jungle!"
"Yes, we will knock down the fence!" cried the other big elephants
through their trunks. And they made such a rumble, and struck the
ground so heavily with their great feet, that the earth trembled.