sts,
its companions went with it; the front of the van was wrenched round and
the off fore-wheel ascended the path, while at the same moment, as the
furious trumpeting continued, there was a crash, one side of the van was
heaved up as if by an internal earthquake, and the next moment, amidst
the noise of splintering wood, the plunging of horses, and the
elephant's deafening roar, the great yellow vehicle lay over on its
side, and the monstrous beast, fully ten feet high, stood panting and
trumpeting with uplifted trunk by the side of the ruins, glaring round
as if seeking which enemy to charge.

CHAPTER FIVE.

AN AL-FRESCO LUNCH.

There were plenty of those whom the great beast looked upon as foes
lying prostrate, for with yells of dismay the crowd dashed off
helter-skelter, trampling each other down in their efforts to escape,
clearing the way as rapidly as they could; but the only object that
offered itself for attack was one of the big van horses, which had swung
round in the alarm, to stand right in the elephant's way.

And now, flapping its ears, giving its miserable little tail a twist in
the air, and uttering a pig-like squeak, the elephant charged, catching
the horse in the ribs and knocking it over on to its side; and then,
without stopping to trample upon the poor animal, the monster indulged
in a peculiar caper resembling a triumphant war-dance, a movement which
but for the suggestion of danger would have been comical in the extreme.
Then, stopping short as if to make a survey of its position with its
piercing eyes, the elephant looked at the ruined van, then at the villa
residences opposite the Doctor's great mansion, then at the blank wall
(which seemed to puzzle it, with what looked like a palisade of boys'
heads), and next up the road.

At last, turning sharply round to point with uplifted trunk down the
road in the direction from which it had come, it went off in its curious
shuffling shamble as if in pursuit of the flying crowd; while, now in a
state of the greatest excitement, about a score of the wild-beast
van-drivers, headed by the man who had the elephant in charge, cracking
his whip and shouting for it to come back, started in pursuit.

The Doctor's pupils, evidently feeling that they were safe behind the
wall, for the elephant displayed no intention of using his trunk to pick
their heads as if they were gigantic cherries, all stood fast, most
probably too much startled to stir; and hav