Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 31, 2025
Her eyes met Skag's before she spoke to the priests. "Is he worse?" The elder spoke for both, as is the custom: "Peace be on thee, thou of gentle voice and skillful hands. We greet thee in the name of Hanuman; and are come, to render up to thee the forfeit life, even according to our covenant; for thou hast saved the wounded king, and he will not die.
Ian's face was darker from the saddle; the body superb in its high tension and slender grace. Was this the brother that Roderick Deal, the eldest, had spoken of as being darker than the average native? Yet the caste-mark was not apparent; the two bloods perfectly blent. The depth of Skag's feeling was called to pity as well as admiration.
"But I do not see yet, why the priests of Hanuman let you go with them " "Nor I," said Skag. "But they know you are not an animal-killer " They walked rather slowly. . . . Night was upon them when they reached the edge of the jungle and heard voices. The back of Skag's hand nearest Carlin was swiftly touched and she whispered breathlessly: "My people. They are coming for me good-bye "
Skag went to Carlin who had fallen, but he was pulled off abruptly. "I say, Lad, let me have a look at you. . . . The child's right enough. Let her rest " The grim face was before him, two steady hands at work on him, pulling back his collar, taking one of Skag's hands after another looking even between the fingers, feeling his thighs. "I can't find that he cut you, Lad," he said gently.
Also before his eyes was the joy of Nels in action the big fellow leaping to his task, steadily drawing them on, it appeared; and always a breath of ease would blow across Skag's being as he noted the quickening; but when that was merely sustained for a while, the hope of it wore away, and he wanted more and more speed past any giving of man or beast. . . . The old drum of the Kabuli tale constantly recurred, as if a trap door to the deeps were often lifted.
"Who says there is none other than Neela Deo?" A thread of silver stretched before them, crossing the line of their course. It broadened in a man's breath. They turned the curve of the last slope, and heard the shout of the mahout far ahead. The thief elephant was running along Nerbudda's margin to a ford. A roar was about Skag's head and shoulders like a storm Gunpat Rao trumpeting again!
Skag's hand was out to her brother. Ian didn't see it. Only his right elbow raised the slightest bit; his dark face flushed and paled that second. The stare was refined; it wasn't hate so much as astonishment that any man could ever bring the thing about to touch Carlin's heart.
A steady beat through Skag's tortured mind was Deenah's story of the monster Kabuli; no softness nor mercy in those details. He had watched, in the Deputy, a man unfold, after the mysterious manner of the English. He had entered suddenly, abruptly into one of the most enthralling centres of fascination in Indian life the elephant service.
All that afternoon Skag's eyes strained ahead, and his respect grew for the thief elephant with his greater burden, and his wonder increased for Nels and Gunpat Rao. One dim far peak held his eyes from time to time; but Skag lived in the low beat of India's misery the fever and famine; the world of veils and the miseries beyond knowledge of the world.
"Son," the mystic's voice rang out, "now give yourself to your love for her with your strength!" Presently a warm glow flowed up into Skag's feet, filling his person and extending his physical sentiency into her body. That body was utterly bound in a strange vise very heavy; as if every particle of every part were separately frozen. . . . It seemed to Skag as if he could not breathe.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking