"Did you hear anything in the night, Pete?" said Archie the next
morning.
"There he is, bless him!" whispered Peter, from where he was peering
through the lookout-hole.
"What do you mean?"
"That Malay chap, sir--the big one with the squint. I should like to
drop upon him and smug that kris of his. Just think of it! As soon as
we made up our minds to toddle the first time we can get the helephant
here before they mount sentry, here he comes, just as if orders had been
given for that to be done regular."
Peter dropped down from his lookout-hole, and began to pick out the
worst of the fruit for the elephant when he came.
"Seems hard on a friend, Mister Archie, but I don't suppose the Rajah
minds them being a bit over ripe."
"Not he," replied Archie; "but I meant, did you hear anything in the
night?"
"Oh, you mean the tiger, sir? Yes, I heerd him three or four times, but
I was too comfortable to sit up and bother about him. Did you hear
him?"
"I suppose I did, but it all seems as if it was part of a dream."
"That's all right, then, sir. I say! Hear 'em? Here's the helephants
coming. You get up and look."
Archie mounted to the hole, and saw, following steadily one after the
other, four of the great beasts, with the little, squat driver seated on
the neck of the last; and after they had passed, loafing carelessly
along as if he were too important and disdained to be driven, came the
Rajah, muttering as if to himself, and walking straight up to the big
stable door before going on to take his bath.
Archie dropped down, after seeing that the sentry was quietly rolling up
a fresh betel-quid, and Peter stood aside for his companion to take his
place by the basket.
"Never mind me, sir. Let him stroke you over as much as he likes; and
you mustn't mind if he smells you too much with the wet end of his
trunk. I want you to be as good friends as me and him is."
The result was that Archie fed the great beast, and was caressed, the
sensation being upon the lad, as he listened to the flapping of the
elephant's ears, that the beast's two little, pig-like eyes were
piercing some crack in the door and watching him intently.
Then, as if quite satisfied with his share in the provender, which he
must have taken as a dainty addition to the vast quantities of jungle
grass and leafage which formed his real support, the elephant swung off,
bowing his huge head and muttering softly, to overtake his companions,
while Peter gave his officer a very knowing look.
"There, sir," he said, "that's just what we want, only no sentry. You
will have to creep out with the prog and the spears, and the krises when
they comes, which we shall have all ready, while I'm feeding him, and
then go on yourself giving him some bread which we will save up for him.
I shall join you, and tell him to kneel down; up we gets. You will
crawl on and hold on by the ropes while I settle down with my legs under
his ears. It will be just as easy as A, B, C."
"_IF_," said Archie, in capital letters.
But the days passed wearily on; provisions were stored up, and there had
been no chance of securing a kris, let alone two, and Peter declared
that it was all out of aggravation that some sentry or another always
took up his daily task before the elephants came.
"They are making a regular custom of it, sir," he said. "Cuss them!"
"What's that, Pete?"
"I only said _custom_, sir. I warn't swearing. I won't say what I
might have said if you hadn't been here."
That very afternoon, as if fate had become weary of fighting against
them, Peter, who had been watching the sentry's weapons with covetous
eyes till it was beginning to grow dusk, suddenly uttered an
ejaculation.
"What is it, Pete?"
"Look here, sir. Be smart, before it gets dark. I have been watching
this 'ere chap for a hour. He has been nodding off to sleep all the
time, and now he's off sound."
"What of that?"
"Kris, sir," said the lad; and crossing the floor of the great building,
he climbed cleverly up to the thatch and passed out, and Archie heard a
faint rustling, and then sat listening in the dark till, after what
seemed to be an impossibly short space of time, the rustling began
again, and a few minutes afterwards Peter, panting heavily, dropped down
on his knees by the subaltern's side.
"Well, was it still too light for you to venture?" asked Archie.
"Poof!" ejaculated the lad. "Ketch hold 'ere, sir;" and he thrust the
pistol-butt-like handle of a kris into his companion's hand. "Sound as
a top, sir. Ain't that prime! Don't I wish he had had a mate, so that
I could have got two!"
"But he will miss it as soon as he wakes," exclaimed Archie.
"Not 'im, sir; and if he does, he'll think that one of his mates has
been larking. Wait a bit, and I shall get another chance, for we ought
to have two."
But Fate was going to smile again, for the very next morning, in a wild
state of excitement, the lad gripped his young officer's hand tightly
between his own.
"No larks, sir," he half-sobbed. "Don't gammon me. If you don't feel
strong enough, say so, and we'll wait."
"What do you mean? What's the matter?" whispered back Archie.
"Look there, sir! The helephants are coming, and there ain't no
sentry."
"Oh!" ejaculated Archie, wild now with excitement, "I'm strong enough
for anything."
"Then take it coolly, sir, just as if we weren't going to make a bolt.
That chap must have been a bit sick last night, or been taking bhang or
something, and he's overslept himself this morning. Now then! Spears--
kris--victuals. Ready for action. Let's get part of the prog on to the
thatch. You hand it up to me, and then mount yourself.--Oh dear, we
sha'n't have half enough time!"
"But suppose the sentry comes?"
"Lie down on the thatch. You will be out of sight."
The low muttering of the elephants was heard as Peter scrambled up to
his hole in the roof. Archie handed up the spears, which the lad took,
and used one to help him in drawing up the basket of provisions, leaving
Archie to follow with a couple of cakes thrust into his breast; and by
the time the young subaltern was climbing along the thatch preparatory
to lowering himself down, five of the elephants had shuffled by, with
the squat little driver mounted on the last, and disappeared round a
curve of the narrow elephant-path.
As usual, their great fellow, Rajah, as Peter called him, was coming
muttering up, apparently only seeing the ground just where he was about
to plant his feet, so that he started and prepared to swerve as he
suddenly caught sight of the private standing waiting for him, this
being something entirely fresh.
But Peter did not lose his presence of mind; he called him by name and
held out a piece of the cake, when the great animal uttered a loud
grunt, stopped short, and extended his trunk, not to grasp the tempting
offering, but to bring to bear his wonderful sense of smell before he
was satisfied.
Then he passed his trunk over the lad's chest, muttering pleasantly the
while, and taking the piece of cake, transferred it to his cavernous
mouth.
"Now, Mister Archie, sir, bring what you can, and never mind the rest.
We haven't a moment to spare. Come gently, whatever you do."
Archie was slowly descending the slope of the great thatched roof, which
seemed to be a perfectly easy task, but so novel to one who had not had
Peter's experience that when he had nearly reached the eaves and was
planting his feet carefully, in preparation for lowering himself down
the eight or nine feet of perpendicular wall, whose trellis-work would
afford him support, the tied-in piece of flat stone upon which he had
planted his foot suddenly gave way, and slipped from the thin cane. A
faint cry escaped from the young officer's lips as he grasped at the
brittle attap mat, which gave way at once. He slipped over the ragged
mat which formed the eaves, and the next moment, _crack, crack, crack_,
he was hanging feet downwards, and then fell heavily in a cloud of dust
bump upon the trampled earth, in company with a snake about six feet
long, which began to glide rapidly away.
"You've done it, sir!" panted Peter; and then loudly, "It's all right,
old man," he continued, as he held out the rest of the piece of cake.
"That's only his way of coming down. Whatcher frightened about? Oh, I
see; it's that snake;" and catching up one of the spears which he had
leaned up against the big door, he used it pitchfork fashion to the
writhing reptile, and sent it flying upward on to the roof, for it to
begin scuffling away amidst the leafy thatch.
_Phoonk_! said the elephant; and he slowly turned himself as if upon a
pivot, and extended his trunk to the coveted cake.
"Don't say you are hurt, sir!" whispered Peter. "You can go on, can't
you? Oh, do say you can!"
"Yes, yes," panted Archie confusedly; "I think I am all right."
"Then here goes for it, sir. I don't feel a bit sure, but I am going to
try as soon as I have fed him a bit more. Don't you bother about the
prog. I am going to make him carry it as inside passengers. It will
please him, and if he will carry us we will eat leaves or grass.--Come
on, old man. Here you are! Ripe 'nanas, and one of them pumpkin
things. What! rather have the pumpkin first?" he continued, as the
great trunk curved slowly towards the golden-hued, melon-like fruit.
"Can't swallow that all at once, can you? And I don't want to stop and
cut it. What! you can? Oh, all right, then. I forgot you'd got
grinders as big as meat-tins.--Good-bye, pumpkin.--Now, Mister Archie, I
am not sure, but I think I can say what the mahout does when he wants
him to kneel down. Then don't you stop a moment, but climb up and get
hold of them ropes that he has got round him, pull yourself up, and hold
on. Ready?"
"Yes," said Archie dreamily; but he was shaken up and confused by his
fall.
"Now, Rajah, kneel down!" cried Peter, in the nearest approach he could
recall to the Malay mahout's command; and, to his great delight, the
huge beast swayed from side to side and sank upon the earth, at the same
time curving his trunk towards Peter as he raised his head.
"There you are," cried Peter, as he passed a couple of the bananas he
held ready, and the moment these had been grasped and the trunk lowered
again, "Now then, up with you!" cried the lad; and planting a foot upon
one of the corrugations of the wrinkling trunk, Archie began to scramble
up, passing over the animal's forehead, up between the extended ears and
over the rugosities between head and neck.
He nearly slipped as he reached for one of the ropes that girdled the
animal's loins, but recovered himself, and, to Peter's satisfaction,
seated himself, holding on tightly by the howdah-stays.
"Here you are!" cried Peter again, and this time he handed a great lump
of cake, which the elephant took contentedly.--"Now, Mister Archie,
sir," he cried, as he seized the two spears and handed them up, "take
hold; I'll carry one by-and-by.--Now, old chap," he continued, "it's my
turn now. Up with you!" And once more his memory served him in giving
some rendering of the mahout's command, for in his slow, lumbering
fashion the monster began to sway.
"Hold tight, sir, whatever you do," cried Peter.
"Yes. Are you going to walk?"
"Not me, sir; but I do wish that we hadn't got to leave that basket
behind."
By this time the towering beast was once more upon its feet, and Peter
was puzzling his head for an order he had forgotten; but just as some
misty notion of the Malay words was hovering in his brain the great
trunk encircled his waist, he was lifted from the ground, and the next
minute he was gliding safely into the mahout's place, his widely
outstretched legs settling themselves behind the monster's ears.
"Now, Mister Archie, give us one of them spears. Got it! Now then--
talk about a mahout!--_Geet! geet_! Netherway!" he cried, using the
words familiar to him from the days when he used to watch the carters
and their teams. "What are you up to now?--Look at that, now, Mister
Archie!" For, to the lad's great delight, the elephant had swung
himself round a little, the effect being to Archie that of a heavily
laden boat in a rough sea, and reaching out with his trunk towards the
basket with the rest of the fruit, he had picked it up, and then began
to march solemnly and sedately in the direction taken by the other
elephants every morning since they had passed the great shed.
"Can you hold on, Mister Archie?" said Peter.
"Yes; pretty well. Are you all right?"
"Oh, I'm all right, sir; but 'ware trees as soon as we get into that
path in front. Mind as the branches don't wipe you off."
"I'll try."
"I say, sir, don't the Rajah know how to take care of hisself!" cried
Peter, carrying his spear diagonally, and looking as if he was prepared
to use it if any one should present himself to stop their way. "Now
what do you think of our plan, sir?"
"Oh, it's splendid," replied the young officer. "But never mind me.
Don't talk much, for I hurt my head a little when I fell."
"Don't think about it, sir. It will soon pass off," cried Peter without
turning his head, and then muttering, "Think of me talking to the poor
fellow like that!--Now then, go ahead, Rajah! Best leg foremost, old
man. Headquarters, please; and I hope you know the way, for I'm blest
if I do. All I know is that I don't want to see that little chap again
for him to go and fetch some of them guards."
The elephant slowly shuffled along for the next ten minutes or so,
before the first difficulty that presented itself to the amateur mahout
appeared in front; for after they had pursued the regular elephant-path
beyond the clearing for some little time, there in front was a dividing
of the road, and upon reaching this the elephant stopped as if in doubt,
and began slowly swinging his head, ending by planting the basket he
carried upon the earth and helping himself to another of the coarse
melons.
"Which way?" growled Peter, as he looked down each path in turn, the one
being fairly trampled, but green with the shoots of the cane; the other
showing the regular holes, and being wet and muddy in the extreme.
"All right," thought the lad. "That must be the way down to the river
where t'others have gone for their bath. Right!" he cried, as the
elephant raised the basket again and inclined his head slowly as if to
follow the muddy path, from some distance down which came the grunting
of the other elephants, when, in his excitement, Peter uttered a savage
"Yah-h!"
This did as well as the purest Malay order meaning to the left, for the
elephant turned his head in the other direction at once, and then
planting his great feet carefully in the fairly dry holes, he began to
follow the greener path.
_Squash_--_suck_--_squash_--_suck_, on and on through the forest shades,
and as the boughs of the jungle trees hung over here and there lower and
lower in the great tunnel of greenery, so cramped in size that there
seemed to be only just room for the elephant to pass along, Peter kept
on looking back nervously, half-expecting to see his companion swept
away from his precarious perch.