THE KING'S MAHOUT 29 



stern; and eventually it was back whence it had 

 broken away, all without fuss or excitement by 

 either the tuskers or the mahouts on their backs. 

 Sometimes an hour would be consumed returning 

 such a one ; but return was inevitable. 



Choo knew, with the river once in sight, at least 

 half his troubles would be over, for elephants take 

 to water like ducks ; so he maintained the arrange- 

 ment of beaters and the several tuskers in the lead, 

 the lot travelling at not more than a mile an hour, 

 until the bank was reached, where the tuskers 

 slipped to one side and the entire herd was soon 

 in the river, bathing and blowing water through 

 their trunks, to indicate in elephantine way their 

 joy of living. With spectators on the banks and 

 afloat in numberless small craft, the drive out of 

 the river into the wings running down to the kraal 

 entrance is always a critical period, so Choo per- 

 mitted the herd to wallow and squirt water over 

 themselves to their heart's content; for nearly an 

 hour in fact. Then he placed fully half his tuskers 

 at the head of the herd and with the remainder 

 covering its rear, began the move toward the kraal, 

 less than a quarter mile distant. Happily for 

 Choo the bath had put the elephants in a very com- 

 fortable frame of mind and they moved forward, 

 following the tuskers unhesitatingly out on to the 

 bank, despite the fact that all Ayuthia and many 



