The Rajah of Dah Part 28

"Nonsense! go, and I would try and make a discovery of metal if I could, even if it is only tin again. If you could hit upon gold, even if it is only some poor deposit in a stream, it would be worth everything to us now, from making him more friendly to us. Spend a little time over that as well as over the birds."

"Then you would go?"

"Certainly, and at once."

"Ready, boys?" cried Murray, quickly now, for he felt that if he thought much more about the trouble at the doctor's home, he would not be able to go.

"Yes; all ready," cried Frank, presenting himself first. "Let's be off.

You are not waiting for us."

"Go on, then. The elephants are standing in front of the rajah's."

The boys needed no second request, but hurried off to find three of the huge, clumsy-looking animals, with their attendants and a party of spearmen, standing bowing their heads and waving their curled-up trunks to and fro. They were fitted with strong basket-work howdahs, and the smallest one was evidently the bearer of the refreshments, its rattan-cane howdah being more roomy and of a rougher make.

The arrangements were soon finished, and Murray mounted into the howdah of the first elephant, followed by Hamet and one of the rajah's men; the second elephant was devoted to the two boys and Tim, who took his place in the most solemn manner.

"Be on your guard for the branches," said Mr Braine. "They stretch so across the way, that on a tall elephant you have to mind, or you may be swept off."

With these parting words of warning, he gave the word, the mahouts touched their mounts' heads with an iron crook, and the party moved off, pa.s.sing with its rather large guard of spearmen right by the doctor's and the merchant's houses, where the ladies stood in the verandas, and waved them a farewell.

"Want the tiger's skin?" shouted Frank to Amy. "You shall have it, if we get one."

She nodded laughingly, and said something; but they were too distant to hear the words, and directly after, the long regular shuffling gait of the elephants had taken them out of sight.

"We are not going near tigers, are we?" said Ned, rather excitedly.

"Of course we are. You can't go anywhere here without going near tigers, and if you don't go near them, they come near you. Wait a few minutes till we are well out of the village, and then you'll see the sort of place our road is.--Won't he, Tim?"

"Indade he will, sor. It's a beautiful road, with a wall on each side, or a hedge, if you like to call it so, as fresh and green as a country one, only a dale more scratchy."

Their way took them past the clump of trees in which the rajah's house was hidden, and the boys looked eagerly between the trunks, but the growth was too dense for them to see anything, even from their elevated perch, as the elephants went swinging by with the spearmen, some now in front and some behind.

"Like it?" cried Frank.

"Yes, I think so," replied Ned.

"Don't feel sea-sick, do you?"

"How can one feel sea-sick, when there is no sea--no boat."

"But you do feel a little giddy with the motion; don't you?"

"I did," replied Ned; "but it is going off fast, and I am beginning to like it."

"Yes, it's all right as long as the forest isn't too dense, and the elephant holes too deep."

"What are elephant holes?"

"Oh, wait a few minutes and you'll soon see that.--Won't he, Tim?"

"That he will, sor, and here we are."

For they had left the village behind, crossed the rice and fruit grounds, and there, all at once, without any preparation in the way of bushes or outstanding trees, was the jungle, with its huge growth rising up like a green wall shutting in some strange territory. It was even more formidable looking than the walls that shut in the river, and as Ned looked to right and left in search of the entrance to the way they were to take, he quite realised how dangerous it was for the poor folk who worked in their rice-fields close up to the black jungle and its lurking creatures.

"There you are," said Frank. "Now then, you must keep your eyes open for snakes and your ears for tigers. Your uncle will shoot if he gets a chance; won't he?"

"I don't know," replied Ned. "I don't think he is well, he has been so quiet lately; but I should hardly believe he would let anything go by."

"Nor I. He's such a shot," said Frank. "My father is pretty good, but Mr Murray is twice as sure. But we shall see no tigers going through a wood like this. The worst of it is, they can see you."

For as he was speaking, the first elephant had gone, as it were, straight into the solid green wall of verdure, and disappeared.

"Now then, Trousers," cried Frank.

"What do you call the mahout Trousers for?" asked Ned.

"I didn't. I was speaking to old India-rubber here."

"Well, why do you call him Trousers?"

"Because elephants always look to me like a big body and two pairs of trousers. Now then, look out for canes and scratches."

For the elephant they were on shuffled into the narrow track, whose sides and roof brushed the great cane howdah, and in a few moments they had pa.s.sed from the glaring suns.h.i.+ne into the hot dank gloom of the forest, where the swis.h.i.+ng noise of the abundant growth, forced aside and trampled down by the huge animals, was for a time the only sound.

"I say, he on the look-out, or out you'll go. We're getting into the wet now."

Frank's words were uttered just in time to make Ned seize hold of the side of the howdah, for the elephant they were on began to lurch and roll, as its legs sank deep in the soft mud and water which filled a series of holes in the track, and the driver turned round to them and smiled.

"Tell him to guide the elephant better," said Ned, as this rocking motion went on. "He is letting it put its feet in all these holes."

Frank laughed.

"It's all right," he said; "they always do that. The holes are the old footprints of other elephants, or their own, when they came along here before, and they get deeper and deeper, and full of mud and water.

Elephants always keep to the old footprints, because they believe they are safe."

"But he could make them go on the hard ground."

Frank said something to the driver, who smiled as he replied.

"I told him what you said, and he says n.o.body could make an elephant step out of them. Look back; the other one is doing just the same."

That was plain enough, and Ned now turned his eyes on Tim, who was seated cross-legged in the hind corner of the howdah, with his arms resting on the edge.

"Ye'll soon get used to it, sor," he said, smiling. "Shakes ye up wondherful though at first. They're great onaisy pigs to ride. Would either of you gentlemen object to my shmoking my pipe?"

"Oh no, smoke away, Tim, but don't make a noise with the match."

"Nivver fear," was the reply; and the man began to prepare his bamboo-pipe, while Ned gazed wonderingly at the narrow view of the dense growth on either side, and the way in which the trees were laced together over their heads by rattan-canes and other creepers, whose leaf.a.ge helped the spreading boughs far overhead to shut out the faintest ray of suns.h.i.+ne. In front, the way was blocked by the hind-quarters of the elephant Murray was on; behind, the smaller elephant with the provisions shut in the track, so that the spearmen who followed could only at intervals be seen, and the gloom grew deeper as _suck_, _suck_, the elephants drew their great limbs from the track holes, or plunged them in, sending a gush of mud and water flying out on either side.