"You can't be sure, Pete. These elephant-paths through the jungle are
all alike. There's the same half-dark, dense heat, the tangled walls on
either side, the overhanging trees and loops of prickly rotan suspended
overhead ready to catch you. How can you be sure that this is one that
you have been along before?"
"I d'know, sir. What you say is very right, but I seem to feel that
I've been along here before, and old Rajah must have been, or he
wouldn't go swinging along as if he felt that he'd got nearly to the end
of his journey. Shall I try and ask Mr Bantam there?"
"Oh no," said Archie wearily. "It's so hard trying to make him
understand, and I always feel in doubt when you have tried."
"Well, sir, we shall soon know whether it is, for I don't believe we are
more than two or three miles from headquarters."
"I'd give anything for you to be right, Pete, for I am nearly done up."
"I know you are, sir, and I might say, so am I; for long enough it has
seemed as if the hinge of my back was giving way, and when the helephant
gives one of his worst rolls it just seems as if he'd jerk my head off.
But cheer up, sir! I think it's all right, and we have done splendidly.
We might have had to pull up and fight all the Malay chaps from up
there by the Rajah's hunting-box. Of course we should have made a good
stand of it, but how are you going to dodge spears in a narrow place
like this? There, cheer up, sir! When you look happy over it I feel as
if I am ready for anything; but when you go down in the dumps I haven't
a bit of pluck left in me."
"It will be dark soon, Pete. If we have to spend another night out in
the jungle I must lie down under some tree."
"Mustn't sir. Cold, rheumatiz', and fever. You will have to stick to
your warm bed up here. But talk about a warm bed--you should have tried
sitting like a mahout."
"It will be dark in an hour, Pete," said Archie, who seemed to pay no
heed to his companion's brisk chatter.
"Not it, sir. Two hours--full, though I ain't got no watch. Not as
that much matters. Old Tipsy has got a big, old silver one, but he says
you never can depend upon it in this damp place. We have got plenty of
time to get there yet, and see how old Rajah is swinging along! I am
sure he knows his way."
"Don't--don't--pray don't keep chattering so! It makes me feel worse
than ever."
"You think so, sir," said Peter stubbornly, "but it don't; it rouses you
up, sir, even if it only makes you turn waxy and pitch into me."
"Yes, yes, I know, Pete. It's because I'm so ill. It's like having a
touch of fever again. Then you must think what a beast and a brute I am
to you--a regular burden. I could feel it in my heart to slip down
under the first big tree and go to sleep, even if I were not to wake
again."
"Hah!" said Pete dryly. "That sounds bad, if it was real, sir; but it's
only what you fancy. How's your head now?"
"That old pain seems back again worse than ever."
"Wish we'd stopped an hour ago when we crossed back over the river
again, and had 'nother good drink. That must have been about one
o'clock, I should say. I don't know, though--I've about lost count.
Ain't it rum, sir, how rivers wind about, and how the elephants' paths
go straight across them?"
Archie looked at him piteously; his eyes seemed to say, "Pray, pray
don't keep talking!"
The look silenced his companion, and for half-an-hour at least not a
word was spoken.
_Plosh, plosh, suck, suck_ of the elephants' feet went on in the same
monotonous way. A gleam of sunshine now and then lightened the gloom of
the tunnel-like path, but besides the dreary sound the silence was
awful. By this time Archie seemed to be quite exhausted, and as Pete
passed an arm round him and lowered him back on to the pad before
slipping a hand into his waistband to ensure his not slipping off, the
poor fellow's eyes were half-closed, while those of his companion were
fixed with the lids wide apart, and with a fierce, staring look gazed
forward over the mahout's head in the wild hope of seeing something that
he could recognise, something that would prove that they really were on
the path that led to headquarters.
"I'm about beat out," said poor Peter to himself. "A chap wants to be
made of iron to keep this up much longer, and I ain't iron, only flesh
and blood and bones, and them not best quality--upper crust. Oh! if I
could only--" He stopped short with his lips apart, face down, and one
ear turned in the direction in which the mahout was staring.
"Oh!" he panted once again, "is it, or am I getting delirious? Ah!
there it goes again--or am I wrong? What's a bugle going for at this
time in the afternoon? I'm a-dreaming of it. No, I ain't! Hooray!--
Look up, Mister Archie, sir! It's all right. Cheer up, sir!"
"What! What! Who spoke?" said the exhausted lad, making an effort,
catching at Peter, and dragging himself up and sitting clinging tightly
to his companion's arm.
"Close in, sir. We shall be at the campong in five minutes, and in less
than another on the parade-ground. Hooroar, sir! There's no place like
home, even if it's out in a savage jungle.--Here, what are you panting
at, sir, like that? Don't do it! You ain't been running."
"You're saying this to keep me up, Peter."
"I ain't, sir; I ain't. Look! Look! You can see for yourself now.
There, them's the big trees where all the helephants sheltered at the
review, and--brave old Rajah! He's making for it straight. There's a
peep of the river too, and you can see the hut above the landing-place
where I kept guard that night and listened to the crocs. Now then, what
do you say to that? Am I right?"
Archie made no reply that was audible, but his lips parted as he
muttered two words in fervent thanks; and the next minute Rajah had
increased the rate at which he made his strides upon hard ground, and
the open space before them was becoming dotted with moving men in their
familiar white jackets, in consequence of an order that had been passed
after a glass had been directed at the advancing elephant; while, as the
great beast, as if quite accustomed to the place, strode in beneath the
sheltering trees and stopped short, to stand with slowly swinging head
on the very spot where Peter had first made his acquaintance, a burst of
cheers rang out from officers and comrades, who came up at the double to
welcome back those who had been given up for lost.
One of the first to reach the elephant's side was the Doctor.
"Archie, my lad!" he cried. "Minnie! My poor girl! Speak, lad--
speak!"
Archie's lips parted, and his old look of despair deepened as he tried
to answer; but no word passed his parched lips, cracking now with fever
and exhaustion. He only looked wildly in the Doctor's imploring eyes
and shook his head.
The Doctor uttered a groan, and then, as the elephant knelt in response
to the mahout's order, the Doctor's despair died away to make room for
duty.
"Now, my lads," he cried, "half-a-dozen of you help them down and carry
them carefully into hospital.--Cheer up, boys! I'll soon put you
right.--Ah, Sir Charles! You here? I can't go.--Hold up, man!--Go up
to my place and speak to my wife. But after this--be a man, sir!--
there's hope for us still."