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Updated: June 8, 2025
For an instant Rataplan thought he would stop for, although elephants are beautiful swimmers, they are not particularly fond of the sport but only for a moment; for the herd was close behind him and pressing him, and the leader could almost reach him with his trunk.
From the time she and Snodgrass met at the Chateau this morning, they have not been out of espionage and close espionage. So long as they are in a taxi, or at the Rataplan, there is no danger of the document getting away if either of them has it; but until we are certain that they have it, we won't detain them; we want the document to aid us in running down the traitor.
A huge Chinese boot, gaudily painted on a swinging sign-board, proclaimed a boot-shop, where in ordinary times they could buy every kind of foot-covering. But now it was no good attempting such methods. So they tilted straight at the shop-door without hesitation, and beating a wild rataplan of blows on the wooden shutters, demanded an entry in a roar of voices.
Yet another long, weary day and night did poor Rataplan lay there, getting weaker and weaker and suffering untold agonies caused by those cruel ropes. He had by this time torn his ankles so fearfully that they were all ulcerated, and stiff from lying on the ground. To add to his misery, he had caught violent inflammation in his eyes.
This night, instead of "Tullochgorum" or "Roy's Wife" or "The March of the McNeils," or any merry strathspey, he crept into an unusual movement, and from a distance came the notes of an exceeding strange strain blent with the meditative murmur of the Rataplan Rapids.
Single rifles now alone cracked off; all the other men must be listening too listening and wondering what this distant rumble meant. Far away the Chinese fire still continued to rage as fiercely but near us, by some strange chance, these distant echoes had claimed attention. Again the booming dully shook the air. Again the machine-guns beat their replying rataplan.
Thus the dramatic element of uncertainty was introduced into the tragedy unfolding on the plains, and the great stars seemed to leap like expectant hearts of fire till the moon broke over the horizon, casting the flying shadows of the great beasts before them. The first furious stampede had settled into a rapid trot, to a sound like the sound of a hundred muffled drums beating a rataplan.
What we want from you is the letter that Captain Snodgrass took from his mail box at the Rataplan this afternoon, and gave to you in the taxi on the way to the Chateau." She smiled incredulously. "Absurd, sir!" she replied. "Surely you are not serious!" "Let me be entirely specific," he returned "I'll put all my cards on the table and play them open."
Then comes the military réveille, and the deafening 'rataplan' of regimental drums, and the town is soon alive with people arriving and departing by the early trains; whilst others collect in the market-place in holiday attire with baskets of flowers, and commence the erection of an altar to the Virgin in the middle of the square.
More often than not the most an Indian elephant will do to his foe is to kick him from one huge foot to another until he is either dead or dying. But from Rataplan, the Rogue, the other elephants preferred to keep aloof. Only once had a herd attempted to chase him, and this was when he had actually presumed to pay a little attention to the wife of its leader.
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