st was as Nels swung around in front of Gunpat Rao's trunk as if
formally to remark: "You see we are to travel together to-day."

The Deputy detained them a second or two longer, while he brought his
gun-case and a pair of pistols, to save the time of Skag procuring his
own at the station. They heard him call, after the start:

"It might be a running fight, you know. . . ."

A little out, Nels was given the scent of the strange elephant and
Deenah left them, with nothing to mitigate the evil discovery that
Carlin and her friend had been carried straight through the open jungle
country, toward the Vindhas; not at all in the direction the messenger
had stated within hearing of the other servants.

A steady beat through Skag's tortured mind--was Deenah's story of the
monster Kabuli; no softness nor mercy in those details. He had
watched, in the Deputy, a man unfold, after the mysterious manner of
the English. He had entered suddenly, abruptly into one of the most
enthralling centres of fascination in Indian life--the elephant
service. He had seen the exalted and complicated mechanism of a Chief
Commissioner's Headquarters get down to individual business with
remarkable speed and not the loss of an ounce of dignity. But under
every feeling and thought--was the slow bass beat of Deenah's story
about the monster Kabuli.

Nels had been called to the trail in the very hour of his arrival.
Skag would have supposed their movement leisurely, except that he saw
Nels steadily at work. Gunpat Rao, the most magnificent elephant in
the Chief Commissioner's stockades--excepting Neela Deo and Mitha
Baba--was making speed under him, at this moment. (Gunpat Rao had
approved of him instantly, swinging him up into the howdah with a glad
grace and a touch that would not unfreshen evening wear.)

Chakkra, the mahout, was singing the praises of Gunpat Rao, his master,
as they rolled forward; flapping an ear to keep time and waving his
ankas--the steel hook of which was never used.

"Kin to Neela Deo, is Gunpat Rao; liege-son to Neela Deo, the King!" he
repeated.

It appeared that he was reminding Gunpat Rao, rather than informing the
American, of this honour.

"Did I not hear the Deputy Commissioner Sahib say that he came from the
Vindhas, and that Neela Deo is from High Himalaya?" Skag asked.

The mahout's face turned back; his trailing lids did not widen in the
fierce sunlight. It was the face of a man still singing.

"