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He had always resented the fact that it was straight out-and-out pain for him to be away from the place she had made in Hurda. Suffering of any kind to Skag was a sign of weakness. He had dwelt long on the subject. The mystery of that first night out had to do with the fact that Carlin seemed to be near. He had known something of this before, a flash at least, but nothing like this.
Before any of the searchers from Hurda reached the caravan, mysterious gifts of provisions much needed were found by the mahouts, with a crude writing beside them: "For the Healer-without-fear." And those same priests of Hanuman preparing a signal-system as they came brought the good word back to the anxious people, who became joyous at once. Their Gul Moti was safe!
The city was filmed in heat. Faint sounds seemed to come out of the sky. Skag was watching one certain road. The trance of stillness was not broken. He turned back into the green shade. . . . He would not delay in Hurda. He would not linger. His friend Cadman had been gone for some days. Yet about going there was a new and intolerable pain. Skag forced himself back from the clearing.
They had scarcely started toward Hurda before they saw Ian Deal following. His pace quickened as he neared his first words queerly shocking: "Is he hurt oh, I say is the Arab hurt?" Skag answered: "A bad cut, but he'll be sound in a week or two." "One might ask first, you know. He's rather a fine thing " Carlin seemed paler, as she held her brother with curious eyes. Ian didn't see her.
The two Americans looked into each other's eyes, without words the Calcutta-bound train was alongside. "Remember, I'm responsible for you from now on, son!" Cadman said, as he loosed Skag's hand. The Monkey Glen Skag and Cadman were back in Hurda where Dickson Sahib lived, and the younger man was disconsolate at the thought of Cadman's leaving for England.
Two men came close, carrying a long slender shape covered with pure white cloth dripping wet. "We be poor men," one said, "but our hands bring to thee, oh Healer from the people of Hurda, oh Healer " and breaking off, because his lips could speak no more, he stooped reverently to lay aside the covering.
"Don't touch, old man!" And then, after the thief elephant, having no fight in him, was made fast, they heard Chakkra singing his song, but paid no attention. . . . It was a longer journey back to Hurda, for they came slowly, but there was no haste; and two, at least, in the hunting howdah could transcend passing time, each by the grace of the other.
My boy will be back from the bazaar soon, to let me know whether the time will be to-day or to-morrow. It's a surprise if you don't mind, Skag Sahib." "All right, then what is the most interesting thing you know about?" Skag asked. "Elephants. No question." "Have you many here in Hurda?"
There was a feeling from it utterly strange to him. It carried him out of himself, as if he shared something of her delirium and something of the man's agony. The next day was one of the hardest that Skag ever lived, for Carlin was not at Hurda to meet him. She had gone with a strange elephant into the country.
It was after they had cared for the Gul Moti with the best they had water from a mountain stream and food Neela Deo had carried, in a shelter made of tender deodar tips, where she now slept on a bed made of the same that the mahouts told the Chief Commissioner and Skag, all they themselves had seen. By this time concern had spread from Hurda throughout the country.
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