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It was well that the Kabuli did not dare to come closer to Hurda than this, so that they had a chance to overtake his elephant afield, before the walls of the purdah closed. . . . Such was the burden of Chakkra's ramble, and there was no balm in it for Skag. The weight settled heavier and heavier upon him with the ending of the day.
Skag fancied a gleam of deep massive humour under the tilt of the great ear below him, as the elephant, none too delicately, set his foot forward into the deeper part of the stream. His trunk and Chakkra's voice were raised together for Chakkra was slipping: "Hai, my Prince, would you go without me? Would you leave the Sahib alone in his proving-time?
The great head before him, with Chakkra's legs dangling behind the ears, had grasped something of the urge of their chase. A vast and mysterious mechanism was locked in the great grey skull. Actually Gunpat Rao seemed to laugh that he had shown the way to Nels. "You don't mean, Chakkra, that he goes into the silence like a holy man?" "It is like."
Skag could see nothing ahead but Nels lying closer to the trail. Chakkra's shoulder was suddenly within reach of Skag's hand, for the head of his master was lifted. As the great curve of Gunpat Rao's trumpet arched before his face two things happened to Skag. A full blast of hot breath drove through him; and a keen high vibrant tone pierced every nerve.
The other's blade had whirled into the water. They had heard the welt as Chakkra's ankas came down. The strange mahout looked drunken and spineless for a second; then there was a red gush under his white cloth as he pitched into the stream. The Great Dane had just caught up. He was in the river below them not doubting his part had come. "Nels, steady! Let him go!" Skag called.
The landscape blurred. The forward beast was growing large . . . two standing figures above him the fling of a white arm! The huge red howdah rocked as the thief elephant entered the river; a moment more, only the howdah showing. Distantly like the hum of furious insects, Skag heard Chakkra's chant: "The thief is snared!
There was a keen squeal from ahead, answered by a fiery hissing intake of Chakkra's breath: "That, Sahib, is the murderous mahout using his steel hook. . . . Yes, it was by necessity, the Deputy Sahib said. Certainly it was by necessity!" The fling of a white arm again. Sanford Hantee was standing. "Carlin!" he called. The answer came back to him in some mystery of imperishable vibration.
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