ck and geese and deer. Yet a single gunshot when
the season opened and you never could get within a mile of them."

"That is true. I have fished and hunted with father."

"Surely! I keep forgetting that it's ten to one you know more about
game than I do."

Silence fell upon them again. On, on, without pausing. Bruce was
getting sleepy himself, so he began munching biscuits. Lighter and
lighter grew the east; the moon dimmed, and by and by everything grew
gray and the chill in the air seemed sharpest yet.

They were both awake.

Sunup they stopped by a stream. Bruce dismounted without having the
elephant kneel and went to the water to fill his canteen. The hunter
in him became interested in the tracks along the banks. A tiger, a
leopard, some apes, and a herd of antelopes had been down to drink
during the night. Even as he looked a huge gray ape came bounding out,
head-on toward Rajah, who despised these foolish beasts. Perhaps the
old elephant missed Ali, perhaps he was still somewhat upset by his
failure to join his wild brothers the night before; at any rate,
without warning, he set off with that shuffling gait which sometimes
carried him as swiftly as a horse. An elephant never trots nor really
runs according to our conception of the terms; he shuffles, scarcely
lifting his feet off the ground.

The mahout yelled and belabored the elephant on the skull. Rajah did
not mind this beating at all. Whatever his idea was, he evidently
proposed to see it fulfilled.

Cunningly he dashed under some branches, sweeping the mahout off his
neck. The branches, with a crash as of musketry, struck the howdah,
but it held, thanks to the stoutness of the belly bands and the care
with which they had been adjusted round the huge barrel.

Bruce stood up, appalled. For a time he was incapable of movement.
Short as the time was, it was enough to give Rajah such headway as he
needed. He disappeared from sight. Bruce saw the futility of shooting
at the beast. The only thing he could do was to mount up beside
Ramabai and Pundita and give chase; and this he did in short order,
dragging up the bruised and shaken mahout with him. The pursuing
elephant, with this extra handicap, never brought Rajah into sight.
But the trail was clear, and they followed.

Surely that poor girl was marked for misfortune. In all the six years
Bruce had possessed Rajah he had never exhibited anything but docility.
The elephant was not r