CHAPTER XIV 



WE had dinner, picnic fashion, on the floor of our en- 

 closure, and then a smoke, the first since we started and 

 only permitted now because, as our leader declared, he 

 could not resist our special pleading, but as he was an 

 inveterate smoker himself, his statement was open to 

 suspicion, more especially as we noticed he had his pipe 

 and tobacco all ready beside him whereas ours had been 

 packed away, obediently, in our travelling bags. 



Night had now set in, and except for the light from our 

 lantern, and another suspended from a tree outside, the 

 darkness was intense which added to the absolute stillness 

 of the forest, and the fact that being on the ground we were 

 practically at the mercy of any prowling beast that might 

 happen to come our way, produced a curious feeling of 

 excitement difficult to describe but which, in my own case, 

 I confess, was not unmixed with fear. 



And yet, despite the awe-inspiring nature of the situa- 

 tion, there was something extraordinarily fascinating in the 

 mere fact of being in the very heart of that huge forest 

 where few human beings had probably ever been before, 

 and none certainly had passed the night, except a forest 

 guard perhaps, but even he would keep his lonely vigil in 

 comparative security in his hut perched on a tree. 



Absorbed in these reflections, we had been smoking in 

 silence for some time, when suddenly from the elephants, 

 tethered here and there all round us, there rose a deafening 

 chorus of trumpeting and squeals mingled with human 

 voices shouting " Bhaloo dotho bhaloo " * in agonizing 

 tones, as of men already in the grip of the animals named. 

 Seizing our rifles, lying ready loaded close at hand, we 

 rushed out at once, and from the light of the outer lantern 



* " Bears two bears." 

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