"Hoomph! Phoonk!"
"What say?" cried Peter, springing up in a sitting position, to find it
was daylight once more. "Oh, it's you, is it?" he cried, for there was
a crackling by the door, and the great, tapering, serpent-like trunk of
an elephant was waving to and fro and reaching towards the water-jar.
"Yahhh! Burrrr!" came from outside, and there were steps as if somebody
were rushing towards the door to chase the intruder away.
The utterer of the yell seemed to have been successful, for the trunk
was drawn back quickly, the elephant trumpeted, there were the footsteps
of a man, and the shuffling sound of the gait of the great beast, as,
springing up, Peter Pegg ran to the door and climbed up to place his eye
where the trunk had been, so that he could see what was taking place.
"My! Look at that!" cried Peter cheerily. "That ain't the way to drive
a helephant away. You are going all wrong, comrade." For, instead of
suffering himself to be driven, the elephant opened his mouth, curved up
his trunk into something the shape of the letter S, and displaying two
finely produced, sharply pointed tusks, he was starting in full chase of
the stumpy underling who had been driving him down to the river, but
only to turn back and make a call on his new friend for refreshment.
"What a lark!" said Peter, as the elephant disappeared after his quarry.
"It makes me feel as if I should like to keep helephants, if I get to
be Field-Marshal and they make me Governor-General of Injy and Malay;
for they are such rum beggars. They look just as if when they died they
would do to cut up for injy-rubber. And they seem so friendly, too,
with any one they like. Sort of things as you can't drive, but have to
lead. I should like a good helephant for a pet, but I suppose he would
be expensive to keep; and I don't suppose that there grubby-looking
little chap feels very comfortable with that one chivying him. Here, I
never thought of that," continued Peter, as he dropped down amongst the
palm-leaves. "My lord was reaching out that big leech of his after our
rations. Lucky he couldn't get at them. I ought to have remembered to
put them away;" and, to guard against any mishap, Peter Pegg hastened to
place jar and basket in the right-hand corner of the building, where
they would be handy for replenishing, and out of reach and out of sight
of his huge visitor. This done, the young private crossed over to where
he had thrust and covered over the spear, and, to his intense
satisfaction, he found that unless a searcher well turned over the dried
leaves, it would be impossible to find the concealed weapon.
"Is that you, Pete?" said a faint voice; and Archie's fellow-prisoner
literally rushed to the speaker's side.
"Me it is, sir. England for ever, and hooray! Oh, do say you are
better, sir!" cried the lad, ending in a half-squeak as if there were
tears in his throat or he was trying to imitate an elephant.
"Better? Yes, I think I'm better, Pete," said the poor fellow feebly.
"But my head aches dreadfully, and--and--I'm so weak."
"Ah, I've got to bathe that head, sir."
"Yes, I think that would do it good. Yes, I am better, Pete, for I can
think. We are prisoners, aren't we?"
"Yes, sir, at present," said Pete confidently. "Just till we are
exchanged, or escape."
"Ah!" ejaculated Archie. "I said I could think now, and I was
forgetting. Look here, have you found Miss Minnie?"
"Now, now, now, sir," cried the young private in a tone full of
remonstrance; "you have been very ill, and off your head. It's very
horrid, I know, but you have got to get better, and not make yourself
worse with thinking about that."
"Yes, yes, I know," said Archie excitedly. "But you don't tell me.
Have you found out where she is?"
"No, sir; not yet. I couldn't leave you."
"Not leave me, man? You must get out of this place as soon as you can,
and either find her or make your way to headquarters, and let the Doctor
and Major Knowle--oh, and Sir Charles too--know what has happened."
"Mister Archie, sir," said the lad, laying a cool hand on his young
officer's burning brow, "don't, sir--please, don't! They must know all
you want to say long enough ago, and before now they have got all our
brave lads out searching the country; and you may lie still, sir, and
think to yourself that nobody will rest until Miss Minnie is found."
There was silence for a few minutes, during which Peter Pegg half lay
beside his wounded officer, listening to words uttered in command that
sounded familiar. They were evidently orders addressed to the elephant,
which was shuffling by the great stable, making a whining sound as if
protesting against being driven.
Then all was still again, till Archie said quietly:
"Yes, Pete, you are quite right, and I pray Heaven that she may be quite
safe by now. But tell me, do you think I--I mean we--did all we could?"
"Mister Archie, sir, once more, don't, please! I am only a poor,
ignorant chap, but I do know this, through having been in horspittle,
that you have got to keep quiet and not worry yourself if you are going
to get well. First thing, sir, is that you have got to get strong
enough so that we can escape."
"Yes, yes, Pete; that's right! Escape!" cried Archie excitedly.
"Take it coolly, sir," remonstrated the lad.
"Well, I will be cool, Pete."
"That's right, sir. We've got to escape, and I have begun preparations
already."
"Yes, that's right. What have you done?"
"Got a spear to begin with, sir."
"Ah, well, that's something."
"Yes, sir--something for you to handle like a bay'net if they won't let
us go quietly."
"Right--right!"
"And the next thing, sir, is for you to get strong to handle it."
"Ah, and I am so weak!"
"Of course you are, sir, when you have had nothing but a drop of water
for days."
"For days!"
"Yes, sir; and now your breakfast's waiting. It's only bread and fruit
and water, but it's wonderful stuff to put strength in a man, and you
have got to begin getting it into you at once."
"No, no; not yet," pleaded Archie. "Let me lie and think a bit first."
"Not a minute, sir," cried the poor fellow's nurse. "You feel as if you
couldn't touch anything, of course, but your horspittle orderly says it
is only making a beginning; and here you are--cocoa-nutful clear, fresh
water, so tip it down at once."
Archie protested feebly, and then obeyed; and after taking a sip or two
from the thick-lipped vessel, he ended by finishing the cooling draught
with something like avidity.
Shortly after Peter Pegg was watching his patient crumbling some of the
bread-cake and dipping pieces in a fresh supply of water and beginning
to eat.