xxi A ROGUE ELEPHANT KILLS ALADDIN 271 



gave me the appalling news that the elephant had 

 charged the caravan a little further on, and had killed 

 Mrs. B. and also my horse and syce ! 



The state of consternation and horror into which 

 this news threw me can well be imagined. Without 

 waiting for further details, I rushed on to find out if 

 this terrible calamity could really have taken place. 

 A short distance further on I met B., who had 

 returned to look after his wife while I took up the 

 spoor. I inquired anxiously as to what had occurred, 

 and he considerably relieved my feelings by tell- 

 ing me that the worst part of the catastrophe had 

 not happened, as Mrs. B. was safe, although she had 

 had an exceedingly narrow and lucky escape. He 

 said, however, that it was unfortunately true that my 

 horse had been killed and the syce injured. This 

 bit of news was bad enough, but it might have been 

 infinitely worse. We then set out to the spot 

 where poor Aladdin had fallen. On the way we met 

 Mrs. B., who was much astonished to see me, as she 

 had been told that I was dead. From her I heard 

 a full account of the disaster. It appears that she 

 remained for some time at the spot where we 

 had left her, but after a while she became anxious 

 and wanted to find out what was going on, so 

 started out on foot through the jungle, taking 

 Abbudi with her. On the way she came upon my 

 syce and Aladdin, and told Asa Ram to follow on 



