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Skag would have supposed their movement leisurely, except that he saw Nels steadily at work. Gunpat Rao, the most magnificent elephant in the Chief Commissioner's stockades excepting Neela Deo and Mitha Baba was making speed under him, at this moment.
It seemed to her that the pale one had been playing before he engaged with Neela Deo. But he did not play any more. He manoeuvred so fast that his body appeared to glance in and out. But Neela Deo foiled him with still greater speed. Her eye could not follow all the maze, the glamour, the incredible spectacle.
Skag coldly told him that the dog had been owned by Police Commissioner Hichens of Bombay. . . . The deputy regretfully ordered Deenah to continue his narrative, and in the silence afterward, presently spoke the name: "Neela Deo, of course "
And slowly out of the shadows of forest trees, came the Chief Commissioner's elephant caravan, trailing in very dejected formation, behind Neela Deo, who showed naked as to his back for his housings had been stripped off him; and as to his neck, for Kudrat Sharif was not on it but on the ground walking backward step by step, enticing him with the adoration and sympathy of his voice.
But from High Himalaya to the beaches of Madras, from sea to sea, the triple Highway-of-all-India was nowhere more august than here, where Neela Deo lived. The exalted splendours of those so ancient and imperial trees rendered distinction to the town, in passing through it, like a procession of the radiant gods.
Then Neela Deo stood back, put up his trunk and uttered a long, strong blast. They were ringing tones mounting clarion tones, with tremendous volume at the top. They were the King's proclamation of victory. The mahouts answered him in High Himalayan voices full of unleashed devotion. The caravan made announcement of that allegiance the heart of an elephant gives sometimes.
With passionate distress they saw the King wounded almost to death less than four months since carrying a heavy howdah and three men going in to fight with a bad elephant who was all but fresh. They cursed the wild elephant with every inward breath, seeing as little hope for Neela Deo as they had seen for Gunpat Rao. The Gul Moti watched appalled.
Then every mahout straightened, freezing to a fixed position that did not differ by a line from the position of his neighbour on either side. Now the people saw that this celebration for Neela Deo, King of all elephants, was to show as much pomp as is prepared for kings of men and they were deeply content. The strings of one sitar began to breathe delicate tones.
This was the moment when Neela Deo charged him and he ran, dodging far beyond the range of the fighting arena down the khud valley. Everyone followed; the wild elephants running by themselves screaming in harsh tones; the caravan trumpeting in clear, full tones; the mahouts, calling the name of the King beside themselves with delight.
Ominously quiet questions went up to the mahouts; and the mahouts were full-ready to answer! In the end, it sounded like a wild Himalayan chant about Neela Deo's great fight to save Gunpat Rao. The people listened patiently, till an inward meaning enlightened them. Then they exulted: "Neela Deo, Neela Deo, King of all elephants!"
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