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It reminded him with a shock that she had never seemed quite tireless since that long ride on Mitha Baba's neck. But never before had her face turned away from him. And now he saw a certain inimitable loveliness of her. There were no words to describe the last only that it was Spirit made of all the dusks and all the white fires.
Mitha Baba rocked on her feet a moment, calling a curious low call a question, softly spoken. At once there was the sound of rapid movement in front. Then Mitha Baba literally whirled plunging away at incredible speed almost exactly in the opposite direction from the one she had been facing. Doctor Carlin Deal Hantee tried to remember Skag tried to remember her own name.
But the toiler of wild elephants had remembered the game she loved. As they topped the crest of a low hill, the Gul Moti scanned the country declining before her toward the Nerbudda. A string of jewels appeared incredibly gorgeous in mid-day light. It was thirty-eight full-caparisoned elephants going fast. Mitha Baba called on them to wait for her; but they remained in sight only a few minutes.
Nut Kut, who had already made his reputation as the most deadly fighter known to the mahouts, was exulting in strength. It was his joy-song. It came from straight ahead. Mitha Baba answered with a rollicking squeal. But the wild herd voices were savage chaotic. Now Nut Kut's challenge came back looming. The situation was no longer absurd.
"He's awfully proud of Mitha Baba; and it's true, Skag Sahib, there isn't anything in grey beyond her; but " Horace stopped, suddenly gone wistful. "What's the trouble?" Skag asked, startled. "They won't let me near him they won't let me! I want him more than anything I know " "Then you'll get him!" interrupted Skag.
"Not any belonging to Hurda; but our Chief Commissioner has forty Government elephants in his stockades the finest ever. Neela Deo, the Blue God who is the leader of the caravan the mahouts say there isn't an elephant in the world to touch him; and Mitha Baba and Gunpat Rao they're famous in all India. And Nut Kut; indeed, Skag Sahib, you should see Nut Kut.
The Gul Moti's high courage sank; the caravan was too near the river to be delayed by Mitha Baba's calls the river too far ahead. "Do they ever obey her, Laka Din?" the Gul Moti asked. "They always used to," the old man replied dubiously. Finally Mitha Baba came out into the straight descent toward the river. No elephants were in sight, but a blotch of colour showed on the bank.
Then, in the white fire of what men call genius, the Gul Moti stood up to meet this new emergency leaning toward Mitha Baba's head and called in ringing tones: "Now come, Mitha Baba, we're away! We're going out to fetch them in! Away, away, awa-a-ay!"
So long as he lived, the old mahout told of the intoxicating splendour of that young voice the golden beauty of those tones; of how Mitha Baba reached out further and further every stride, to its rhythm, till the earth rose up and the stars began to swing. "We'll fetch them in, Mitha Baba, we'll fetch them in! . . . Away, away, awa-a-ay!"
The Deputy capitulated: "Mitha Baba, yes; especially since she knows the Hakima and oh, I say, that's a strange tale, you know " He glanced from Deenah to Nels, to Skag; but received no encouragement to narrate same.
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