i;8 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



it, and with a shrill scream of rage, it was after 

 them. What occurred next is best told in Theo- 

 bald's own words : 



" My legs appeared to give way I felt as if 

 I could not run another pace. The shikaree shot 

 ahead of me, and gained a point some twenty yards 

 in front, where a bush overhung the nullah. With a 

 leap he gained the branches, and was on the bank in 

 safety. Already I thought I felt the cold, clammy 

 clutch of the elephant's trunk round my neck. I was 

 choking ! I thought of the poor shikaree torn in 

 two at the kheddah } and knew that would be my 

 fate in another minute or two, unless I gained the 

 bush up which the shikaree had clambered. My legs 

 appeared to be made of lead ; I could not for the 

 life of me do more than a trot. ' lyo / lyo f 

 hodoo I hodoo cheekrum / ' (O ! O ! run ! run 

 fast !), shouted the shikaree from the bank. No ! 

 my head began to swim. I could not go faster, 

 when suddenly down the bank leaped Boomay 

 Gowda, and, seizing me by the hand, hurried 

 me along. How we gained the bush, and how 

 we got up the bank, I know not. When I re- 

 covered recollection I was standing on the bank, 

 supported by the shikaree and Boomay Gowda, 

 while the elephant was below us, trumpetting and 

 screaming as it tore into shreds the bush up which 

 we had escaped, and on which it was now 

 venting its rage. That would have been my 

 fate, I thought, as I squeezed the hand of the 

 brave old man who had just risked his own life 

 for me. Finding it could not get at us, the ele- 



