XV
KEEPING THE TRYST
Maharaj was a very big elephant and Alec was a half-grown boy--aninsignificant human pigmy--in spite of which disparity they were greatpals, for Alec admired that mountain of strength as only an imaginativeboy can, and elephants can appreciate admiration.
When Alec came across Maharaj he had taken up his quarters temporarilyin the mango tope opposite the bungalow. He was pouring dust upon hishead and blowing it over his back, both because he enjoyed a dust bathand because it helped to keep off the flies. With the quick perceptionof a boy, Alec noticed he had used up all the dust within reach, so hegot him a few hatfuls from the roadside, for which he was very grateful,and immediately sent a sand blast over his back that annihilated quite acolony of mosquitoes. Then he admitted Alec to his friendship, and theybecame pals.
Hard by the mahout was cooking his dinner under a tamarind-tree.
"Did the Sahib ask if he was clever? Wait, and the Sahib shall see. Hereare his six chapaties of flour that I am baking. Out of one only Ishall keep back a handful of meal. How should he detect so small aquantity missing? But we shall see."
The elephant driver put on the cakes to bake--pancake-shaped things,eighteen inches across and an inch thick. They took their time to cook,for the fireplace was small, being only three bricks standing on theground. When they were ready he placed the cakes before Maharaj, whoeyed them suspiciously.
"He has been listening," explained the driver. "Those big ears of hiscan hear talk a mile away. Go on, my son, eat. What is there wrong withthe food?"
Maharaj slowly took up a chapatie in his trunk, carefully weighed it andput it on one side, took up another and did the same. The fourthchapatie was the light one; this he found out at once and indignantlythrew it at the feet of the mahout, grumbling and gurgling and swinginghis head from side to side and stamping his forefoot in anger.
"What! son of a pig! is not the flour I eat good enough for thee also?Well, starve then, for there is no better in the bazaar."
They walked away; the small restless eyes followed anxiously; yet theelephant made no attempt to eat, but swung angrily from side to side inhis pickets. Presently they returned, but he had not touched a chapatie.
"It is no use, Sahib," said the mahout, "to try and cheat one so wise ashe, and yet folks say that we mahouts keep our families on theelephants' food, which words are base lies, for is he not more preciousto me than many children?"
Then the mahout drew out an extra chapatie he had hidden in his clothes.
"Oh! Maharajah, King of Kings, who can deceive thee, my pearl of wisdom,my mountain of might?" and the mahout caressed the huge trunk as itwound itself lovingly around him and gently extracted the chapatie fromhis hands. Having swallowed this, the elephant picked up the scatteredcakes and, piling them up before him, gave himself up to enjoying hismidday meal.
After that Maharaj and Alec grew great friends. Alec used to bring himbazaar sweets, of which he was very fond, and sugar-cane. He was a greatwonder to the elephant, who could never understand why his pockets werefull of all sorts of uneatable things. He loved to go through them,slowly considering each in his elephantine way. The bright metal handleof Alec's pocket-knife pleased Maharaj, and it was always the firstthing he abstracted from the pocket and the last he returned, but thebits of string and the ball of wax he worried over. The key of thepigeon-house, a peg-top, marbles, etc., I believe made him long to havepockets of his own, for he used to hide them away in the recesses of hismouth for a time, then, finding they were not very comfortable, he usedto put them all back into Alec's pockets. The day the boy came withsweets Maharaj was delighted, for he smelt them a long way off, andnever made a mistake as to which pocket they were in.
It was wonderful to see how gently he could play with the little brownbaby of the mahout. He loved to have it lying between his greatfore-feet, and would tickle it with the tip of his trunk for thepleasure of hearing it laugh, then pour dust upon it till it was buried,always being careful not to cover the face. But like a great big selfishchild he always kept his sweets to himself, and would pretend not to seethe little outstretched hand, and little voice crying for them, till hehad finished the last tit-bit.
Tippoo--the cook's son, Alec's fag and constant companion, who wasmostly a pair of huge pyjamas, was also admitted to the friendship ofMaharaj. But there was one man that the elephant disliked, and that wasthe mahout's nephew, one Piroo, who was a young elephant-driver seekinga situation--a man not likely to be successful, for he was morose andlazy, and drank heavily whenever the opportunity came his way, and wasvery cruel to the beast he rode.
Sometimes the mahout would take Alec down to the river-side, he driving,while Alec lay luxuriously on the pad. There Maharaj had his bath, andthe boy used to help the mahout to rub him over with a lump of jhama,which is something like pumice-stone, only much harder and rougher, andthe old skin rolled off under the friction in astonishing quantities,till the look of dried tree-bark was gone, and the dusty grey had becomea shining black. After the bath there was usually a struggle withMaharaj, who, directly he was clean, wanted to plaster himself all overwith wet mud to keep cool and defy mosquitoes. This he was not allowedto do, so he tore a branch from a neem-tree instead, and fanned himselfall the way home.
Now there was to be a marriage among some of the mahout's friends wholived in a village a day's journey from the station, across the river,and he promised that Alec, Tippoo, and his nephew were to accompany him.When the day came the mahout had a slight touch of fever and couldn'tgo, but he told his nephew to drive the boys there instead. Maharajdidn't like Piroo at all, and made a fuss at having to go without themahout, for which he got a hot scolding. Then there were tears and petnames and much coaxing before Maharaj consented to go.
"Thou art indeed nothing but a great child that will go nowhere unless Ilead thee by the hand, with no more heart in thy big carcase than mybabe, who without doubt shall grow big and thrash thee soundly. Nowhearken, my son, thou art going with Piroo to the village of Charhunse,one day's journey; thou art to stay there one day, when there will begreat feasting, and they will give thee surap wine in thy food; and onthe day following thou must return (for we start the next morning forthe Cawnpore elephant lines); bring the boys back safely--verysafely--or there will be very many angry words from me, and no food.Now, adieu, my son, salaam Sahib, Khoda bunah rhukha" (God preserveyou). And the mahout passed into his hut with a shiver that told of thecoming ague.
It was a grand day and the road was full of people of all sorts andconditions; and the boys, proud to be so high above the heads of thepassing groups, greeted them with all the badinage of the bazaar theycould remember, which the natives answered with good-natured chaff. Theroad was one long avenue, and in the branches overhead the monkeyssported and chased each other from tree to tree; birds sang, for it wasnesting-time; and the day was as happy as it was long.
At nightfall they reached the village, and the head man made them verycomfortable. The next day the wedding feast was spread, and quite twohundred people sat down to it. After the feast there was racing,wrestling, and dancing to amuse the guests.
They enjoyed themselves very much. The wedding feast was to last severaldays, and instead of returning the following day as they had promisedthe mahout, Piroo determined to stay a day longer, in spite of all thatAlec had to say against it.
Piroo was in his element, and sang and danced with great success, forthe arrack was in his veins, and at such times he could be the antipodesof his morose self. His dancing was much applauded. But there wasBhuggoo, the sweeper, from the city, who had a reputation for dancing,and was in great request at weddings in consequence, and he dancedagainst Piroo, and so elegant and ingenious were his contortions that hewas voted the better. Then he changed his dance to one in which hecaricatured Piroo so cleverly in every turn and gesture that the peopleyelled and laughed.
This so incensed Piroo that he struck the man; but the sweeper, who wasgenerally accustomed to wi
nding up his performance by a grand broomfight with some brother of the same craft, was quite ready for an affairthat could only increase his popularity. Catching up his jharroo, orbroom, he began to shower blows upon the unfortunate Piroo, yet neverceasing to dance round him so grotesquely that the fight was too much ofa farce for any one to think of interfering. Yet the blows went homepretty hard, and as the broom was a sort of besom made of the springyribs of the palm-leaf it stung sharply where it found the naked flesh.
It is a great indignity to be beaten by the broom of a sweeper, andPiroo, maddened with rage, flew at the throat of his rival. But Bhuggoo,the sweeper, was very nimble, and as the end of a jharroo in the facefeels like the back of a porcupine, you may guess it is the mosteffective way of stopping a rush. So Piroo, baffled and humiliated, leftthe sweeper victor of the field and fled amid great shouts of laughter.But his rage had not died in him, and more arrack made him mad; elsewhy should he have done the foolish thing that followed?
Finding Maharaj had pulled up one of his picket pins, he took a heavypiece of firewood and dashed it upon his tender toe-nails, while heshouted all the abuse that elephants know only accompanies severepunishment. Now Maharaj, who would take punishment quietly from Buldeo,the old mahout, would not stand it from any other; besides, he wasalready excited with all the shouting and tamasha going on, and he hadhad a good bit of arrack in his cakes that evening; so when the logcrashed down on his feet he trumpeted with pain, and, seizing Piroo inhis trunk, lifted him on high, preparatory to dashing him to earth andstamping his life out.
SEIZING PIROO IN HIS TRUNK, HE LIFTED HIM ON HIGH.]
But fortune was in favour of Piroo for a time, and the big cummerbund hewore had got loose with dancing, so it came undone, and Piroo slippeddown its length to the ground, while Maharaj was left holding the loosecloth in his trunk.
Then Piroo fled for his life, and ran into a grass-thatched hut thatstood close by; but the elephant, pulling out his picket pins like acouple of toothpicks, reached the hut in a stride, and, putting histrunk through the thatch as if it had been a sheet of paper, felt roundfor the man inside and, seizing him, dragged him forth. The peopleyelled, and some came running with fire-brands to scare him, but beforeany could reach him Maharaj had knocked one of his great fore-feetagainst the head of the unfortunate Piroo, and he fell to the groundlifeless.
The villagers were terror-stricken and ran to hide in their huts.Tippoo, who was nearest the elephant, ran also, and Alec was about torun when he saw Maharaj single out Tippoo and chase him. The boy fled,and his flying feet hardly seemed to touch the earth, but Maharaj withlong swinging strides covered the ground much faster, and in a fewmoments there followed a shriek of despair and Tippoo was strugglinghelplessly fifteen feet in the air in the grasp of that terrible trunk.
"Save me! Sahib, save me!" he shrieked, while Alec looked on powerlessto help.
Maharaj seemed undecided whether to dash him to pieces or not. Alecseized the opportunity to imitate the driver's voice and cry, "Bring theboys home safely--very safely--my son." The elephant's great fan-shapedears bent forward to listen, and he lowered Tippoo till he hung swingingat the end of the huge proboscis. Alec felt he dared not repeat thewords, as the elephant would find out the cheat.
The great beast stood a few minutes thinking, and then, swinging Tippooup, placed him on his neck, and came straight for the tree behind whichAlec was hiding.
For a moment a wild desire to escape came to the boy, and the next hesaw how hopeless it would be. The sal-tree he had sheltered behind wastoo thick to climb, and the lowest branch was twenty feet from theground. To run would be just madness, for Maharaj would have caught himbefore he could get to the nearest hut. So, taking confidence from thefact that he had not hurt Tippoo, Alec came out from behind the tree andordered Maharaj to take him up.
He was surprised at the exceeding gentleness with which he did so, butwhen Alec was once seated astride of his neck with Tippoo behind him, hedid not know what to do. He thought he would walk the elephant round thevillage and then tie him up in his pickets again. So he cried, "Chalo!Bata!" (Go on, my son), and tried to guide him with his knees; butMaharaj would not budge an inch, and stood stock still, considering.Then he seemed to have made up his mind, and started forward suddenlywith a lurch that nearly threw the boys off.
He walked straight to the dead mahout and, carefully gathering him up inhis trunk, wheeled round and set off stationwards. He had remembered hismaster's commands, and the journey to Cawnpore he must commence on themorrow.
It was about eight o'clock in the evening, and Alec had no desire tostart travelling homeward at that hour. Besides, he had no food withhim, and the pad was not on the back of Maharaj. It is almost impossibleto ride an elephant bare back, and though these were only slips of boysthere wasn't room enough for two to sit comfortably on the neck. Alecdrove his knees into the elephant's head behind the ears and tried toturn him round, shouting, "Dhutt, dhutt, arrea!" (Go back!), but it wasno use; the elephant had made up his mind to go home, and took not theleast notice of the boy's commands.
The head man of the village ran after them, crying--
"Where are you taking him, Sahib?"
"We take him nowhere," Alec answered. "He is master to-night, andcarries us home, I believe."
"But you cannot ride without the pad, Sahib, or the driving-hook, andthere are other things you leave behind."
"We will stick on his neck till we drop," he answered (for an elephantis worth many thousand rupees to the Government, and must not get lost).
"At least command him to drop the dead body before he mangles it, sothat we may burn it with decent ceremony," was the last request of thehead man.
But Maharaj would not listen to the command, and made certain noises inhis throat by which he meant Alec to understand that he was going tocarry the dead man home whether he liked it or no.
The lights of the village were soon lost in the distance, and Maharajstrode into the empty darkness, trailing a picket pin behind him andcarrying that horror in his trunk.
Till that day Alec had loved Maharaj for his great strength anddocility, his wisdom, and his endearing ways with children, but when hesaw him in anger extinguish the life of a man as easily as one couldpulp a gooseberry in the fingers, the elephant changed at once in hiseyes, and Alec saw in him nothing but the grim executioner of theMoguls, and stamping out lives his daily task. The boy felt the touch ofthe beast almost loathsome, and longed to escape from his situation onits neck.
Soon the cramped position began to tell, for they were jammed together,and Tippoo felt like a mustard-plaster upon Alec's back. Alec tried tovary the discomfort by lying forward on the head of the elephant, andTippoo tried leaning back as far as he could without being in danger offalling off, but they both felt they could not hold on the eight hoursthat the journey would take.
By-and-by they noticed that something was making Maharaj restive; twicehe swung his trunk as if trying to drive away that something, afterwhich he quickened his pace, then he turned round once in his tracks andfaced his unseen tormentor. Alec wondered greatly what was worrying him,but he heard and saw nothing in the blackness that reigned. Theelephant's restiveness increased, and again he swung round suddenly andcharged that invisible thing in the dark; again Alec strained both eyesand ears to no avail. The only sound on the air came from the trailingpicket pin.
"Whatever is worrying Maharaj?" he said anxiously.
"He sees that which our eyes can't see--an evil thing," answeredTippoo.
"What! do you mean the ghost of Piroo?" Alec asked.
"No, Sahib," said Tippoo. "It is a churail, an evil spirit that eatsdead men, and it wants the body of Piroo."
"Nonsense," Alec replied.
"It is true, Sahib. Many have seen it at work in the graveyards of theMussulman, but to-night no one may see it but the elephant."
Alec laughed. Yet, ghoul or not, there was something the huge beastseemed afraid of and hurried to get away from, or attemp
ted to frightenback, without success.
It was a most weird and uncanny situation, and the boys longed for it toend.
But a pleasant change was at hand. The heavens were rapidly lighting,and soon the moon commenced to rise on the scene. A feeling of reliefgrew with the strengthening light, for they were sure the ghostly terrorwould disappear with the dark. The moon had partly risen when Tippoosaid, "Look, Sahib, there is the thing."
Alec looked, and in the uncertain light saw a shadowy something keepingpace with the elephant, but what it was he could not say.
Then on the other side of the road they saw there was another movingshadow as mysterious as the first. But they were not kept in suspensemuch longer, for the light suddenly brightened, and they saw each weirdshadow transform itself into a number of jackals. The smell of bloodhad attracted the pack, and they had made an attempt to get the deadbody away from Maharaj. The reaction on their strained nerves was sogreat that the boys laughed aloud in pure joy at the sense of relief,and wondered they had not guessed the cause of the elephant'srestlessness before.
For nearly four hours they had been on that apology for a neck, andtheir limbs were painful and stiff from the discomfort of sitting soclose, when, without any warning, Maharaj came to a stop under a bigneem-tree, and they recognised it as the place at which they had takentheir midday meal going down to the village. Maharaj carefully placedthe body of Piroo on the ground and knelt down beside it, and the boys,only too pleased at the chance, scrambled off as fast as their crampedlegs would permit. It needed some walking up and down to get rid oftheir stiffness, so they chased the jackals and pelted them with stones,which restored their circulation quickly, whilst Maharaj stood sentryover the dead man.
Tired out and exhausted, the boys were anxious for a little sleep, butthey could not lie under the same tree as that gruesome thing, so theylay down under a neighbouring sal. Alec was on the way to dreamland whenhe felt he was being carried gently in some one's arms. He woke up andfound that Maharaj had lifted him in his trunk and that he was takinghim back to the tree where the dead lay. Here he placed Alec on theground alongside the mahout, on the other side of which was Tippoosnoring peacefully. How he had managed to move the boy without wakinghim was a marvel. As soon as Alec was released he tried to get away, butMaharaj would not allow it, and forced him to lie down again while hestood guard over all three.
They say boys have no nerves, but even at this distance of time Alecshudders to recollect his sensations on that night of horror caused bythe poor crushed thing he lay shoulder to shoulder with. He feignedsleep and tried to roll a foot or two away, but Maharaj had grownsuspicious, and rolled him back, so that he lay flat on hisshoulder-blades between the forelegs of the elephant, watching therestless swing of the trunk above him. This was better than looking atwhat lay beside him, and he wanted no inducement to keep his gazeaverted. A hyena laughed like an exultant fiend. Great flying foxesslowly flapped across the face of the moon, like Eblis and hissatellites scanning the earth for prey, and the pack of jackals satsilently waiting for the body of the dead.
Maharaj was very quiet and vigilant, and seemed to understand theseriousness of his crime. The usual gurgling, grunting, and rocking withwhich he amused himself at night were wanting, and though there was alarge field of sugar-cane near by, and he must have been hungry, henever tried to help himself as he would have done on any other occasion.In spite of the feeling of repulsion Alec began to feel a little pityfor the remorseful giant, for it was most probable he would be shot forkilling Piroo, whose drunken madness had brought about his own death.
But all things have an end, and even that night passed away like thepassing of a strange delirium. About four o'clock Maharaj became veryrestless, thinking it was time to start, and pulled and pushed Tippootill he sat up, rubbing his eyes and looking about in a dazed way. Theelephant went down on his knees, and the boys took advantage of theinvitation and were soon in their places. Then Maharaj slowly picked uphis burden and they recommenced their journey home. The jackals weremuch disappointed, and followed listlessly for a short distance, thenslunk off down a nullah to avoid the light of day.
A sleepy policeman was the first to notice the dead man in the trunk ofthe elephant. With a yell of alarm he sprang from the footpath where hestood, panting and staring till Maharaj had passed; then some confusednotion that he should make an arrest seemed to occur to him, and he madea few steps forward, but the magnitude of the task made him halt again,dazed and bewildered, and thus they left him. The consternation theycaused in the bazaar is beyond words to describe. It is sufficient tosay that the better part of the population followed Maharaj at a safedistance, looking like some huge procession, wending its way to the hutof the mahout. Maharaj walked slowly to the door of the hut and laidthe corpse down.
"Hast thou brought them back safely, my son?" cried a fever-strickenvoice from the depths of the hut.
"Goor-r-r," said Maharaj in his throat.
"That is well; but why didst thou not arrive last evening? Didst travelall night? Piroo, thou wilt find his sugar-cane in the shed; give him adouble measure and drive his pickets in under the mango-tree."
But there was no answer from Piroo, only the frightened whisperings of agreat number of people assembled outside. The old mahout, in alarm,staggered to the door, and saw the body at the feet of Maharaj and thecrimson stains upon the trunk and feet of the elephant.
"Ahhi! ahhi! ahhi!" cried the old man aloud, "what madness is this? Whathast thou done, my son? Now they will shoot thee without doubt--thy lifefor his, and he was not worth his salt. Ahhi! ahhi!"
Then the old man wept, embracing the trunk of the elephant, which wascoiled round his master, while the people looked on, and the boys, wornand tired by the strain of that awful night, could barely cling to theirseats on the neck of Maharaj.
Then the mahout, weak as he was, helped them off, and set about washingthe dark red stains away.
"Ahhi! ahhi!" he sobbed. "I have lost a nephew. I have lost also myson, who will surely be shot by the sirkar for this deed. My Maharaj, mygreatest of kings! What shall I do without thee! I will return to mycountry and drive no more. Ahhi! ahhi!"
But this happily was not to be, for a strange thing happened. The nephewrecovered. Piroo had only been stunned by the blow, and the blood thatcovered his face had come from his nose. He was, after a time, himselfagain, but a wiser man, and Maharaj was not shot after all. Yet the boysdo not like to think of that adventure even to-day.