The animal, which was a large and well-shaped male, possessed only one
tusk, the right. The other had never grown. Dermot knew that an elephant
thus marked by Nature would be regarded by Hindus as sacred to _Gunesh_,
their God of Wisdom, who is represented as having the head of an elephant
with a single tusk, the right. Many natives would consider the animal to be
a manifestation of the god himself and worship it as a deity. So the Major
made no comment on the coolie's remark, but said:

"What is your name?"

"Ramnath, _Huzoor_."

"Very well, Ramnath. You are to have sole charge of Badshah until I can get
someone to help you. You will be his _mahout_. Take this medicine that I
have been using and put it on as you have seen me do. Don't let the animal
blow dust on the cuts. Keep them clean, and bring him up tomorrow for me to
see."

He handed the man the antiseptic and swabs. Then he turned to the elephant
and patted it.

"Good-bye, Badshah, old boy," he said. "I don't think that Ramnath will
ill-treat you."

The huge beast seemed to understand him and again touched him with the tip
of its trunk.

"Badshah knows Your Honour," said the Hindu. "He will regard you always now
as his _ma-bap_ (mother and father)."

Dermot smiled at this very usual vernacular expression. He was accustomed
to being called it by his sepoys; but he was amused at being regarded as
the combined parents of so large an offspring.

"Badshah has never let a white man approach him before today, _Huzoor_,"
continued Ramnath. "He has always been afraid of the sahibs. But he sees
you are his friend. _Salaam kuro_, Badshah!"

And the elephant raised his trunk vertically in the air and trumpeted the
_Salaamut_ or royal salute that he had been taught to make. Then, at
Ramnath's signal, he lowered his trunk and crooked it. The man put his bare
foot on it, at the same time seizing one of the great ears. Then Badshah
lifted him up with the trunk until he could get on to the head into
position astride the neck. Then the new _mahout_, salaaming again to the
officer, started his huge charge off, and the elephant lumbered away with
swaying stride to its _peelkhana_, or stable, two thousand feet below in
the forest at the foot of the hills on which stood the Fort of Ranga Duar.
For this outpost, which was garrisoned by Dermot's Double Company of a
Military Police Battalion, guarded one of the _duars_, or passes, through
the Himalayas into India from th