144 MYSTERIOUS FATE OF THE DUCKS. 



other way, so as to be able to jump on to terra firma, not into space with 

 an elephant after me, in case of a roll. 



Poor Chumpa was not seriously hurt, and in a month was quite well 

 again. Astonisliing to relate, four out of the doctor's eight ducks Avere 

 found scathless ; a few dabs of blood and feathers amongst the fragments of 

 pots and pans along the line of descent led to the conclusion that the others 

 had been crushed, but no piece of them was ever found large enougli to 

 enable any one to swear to theii' exact fate. 



A certain amount of obscurity also shrouded the last moments of the 

 survivors of this mishap. Some days subsequently I heard Jaffer and certain 

 mahouts confidentially advising the doctor to have nothing to do with such 

 evidently uncanny ducks, saying tliat they would not eat them if they were 

 theirs — not for any consideration. They suggested their being allowed to 

 swim away down the Chengree, on the banks of which we were then en- 

 camped, that not only might the danger that would assuredly attend eating 

 them be avoided, but also such harm as would in all probability result from 

 their continued presence in camp. Their representations seemed to have 

 some effect on the doctor, and though he did not agree to release the ducks, 

 he evidently had superstitious qualms about eating them. These would 

 probably have given way when provisions became scarce, but before that 

 time the ducks vanished in a mysterious manner. The doctor, who was 

 exceedingly tall and lanky, beguiled a few hours of each morning by letting 

 them out for a swim, he watching their aquatic gambols from the bank with 

 tender solicitude. One morning whilst he was thus engaged a mahout came 

 in haste to say his services were required in the elephant-lines at some dis- 

 tance. The doctor accompanied him, as the case was represented to be 

 urgent, leaving his ducks disporting themselves near a bend of the stream 

 below camp. AVhen he returned from attending the case, which turned 

 out to be much less serious than was represented, he proceeded to collect 

 his ducks. He shortly, however, returned, looking very blank. They had 

 vanished. He had sought tliem far and near, on the water and in tlie 

 jungle, but no trace of them was to be seen. No one could teU him any- 

 thing of them. Jaffer even asked him what he could expect of ducks that 

 had survived a roll down a precipice on an elephant. They were evidently 

 not subject to the ordinary conditions of their kind, and he advised the 

 doctor to be thankful that they liad taken themselves off instead of any- 

 thing untoward happening to anybody. Suspicions were afterwards souglit 

 to be cast upon Jaffer and my special riding-ehqihant's attendants by the 

 store-weighman, a friend of the doctor's, wlio declared that he saw tliem 

 dining particularly well the night al'ter tla- ducks were lost, anil who stated 



