Part 25 (1/2)

For quite a long while, it see h I interested hi in a refreshi+ng streareat ears on to my back Had it not been for that water I think I should have fainted, but as it was I did the next best thing--pretended to be dead Perhaps thisout of the corner of my eye, I saw him lift one vast paw that was the size of an arood-bye to the world, thought I Then the foot descended as a steam-hammer does, but also as a steam-hammer sometimes does when used to crack nuts, stopped as it touched side of erous At any rate, he took another and better way Depositing the reh the nurse were putting the child to bed, he unwound his yards of trunk and began to feelat the back oftip upon my spinal column!

Down it went till it reached the seat of my trousers There it pinched, presuonizing pinch like to that of a pair of blacksh I did not stir, are that the slightest movement meant death, it tore a piece out of the stout cloth ofof a portion of the skin beneath This seemed to astonish the beast, for it lifted the tip of its trunk and shi+fted its head, as though to exaht of the moon

Now indeed all was over, for when it saw blood upon that cloth----! I put up one short, piteous prayer to Heaven to save me from this terrible end, and lo, it was answered!

For just as Jana, the results of the inspection being unsatisfactory, was cocking his ears andout the short, sharp report of a rifle fired within a few yards Glancing up at the instant, I saw blood spurt from the monster's left eye, where evidently the bullet had found a ho a scream of pain, wheeled round and rushed away

CHAPTER XIV

THE CHASE

I suppose that I swooned for aand very curious dreaas, that is very clear and vivid at the tirasp as water does fro to the effect that all those hundreds of skeleton elephants rose andobeisance totheir bony knees, because, as I quite understood, I was the only hu that had ever escaped from Jana

Moreover, on the fore words of co to them that it would be very convenient if they would carry their tusks, for which they had no further use, and pile theood road to facilitate their subsequent transport to a land where they would be made into billiard balls and the backs of ladies' hair-brushes Next, through the fig dream, I heard the undoubted voice of Hans himself, which of course I knew to be absurd as Hans was lost and doubtless dead, saying:

”If you are alive, Baas, please wake up soon, as I have finished reloading Into I think I hit Jana in the eye, but so big a beast will soon get over so little a thing as that and look for us, and the bullet from Intombi is too small to kill him, Baas, especially as it is not likely that either of us could hit him in the other eye”

Now I sat up and stared Yes, there was Hans hi just the sa a cap on to the nipple of the little rifle Intombi

”Hans,” I said in a hollow voice, ”why the devil are you here?”

”To save you fro the gun against the stone, the old fellow knelt down by an to blubber over :

”Just in time, Baas! Only just in tied badly--I'll tell you afterwards Still, just in time, thanks be to your reverend father, the Predikant Oh! if he had delayed me for one more minute you would have been as flat as ot the ca after four days' rest with plenty to eat This place is haunted, Baas, and that king of the devils, Jana, will be back after us presently, as soon as he has wiped the blood out of his eye”

I didn'tno taste for conversation just then, but only looked at poor Mart, who lay by

”Oh, Baas,” said Hans, ”there is no need to trouble about him, for his neck is broken and he's quite dead Also it is as well,” he added cheerfully ”For, as your reverend father doubtless remembered, the camel could never carry three Moreover, if he stops here, perhaps Jana will co us”

Poor Mart! This was his requielance at the unhappyour time of joint captivity and trial, I took the arm of the old Hottentot, or rather leant upon his shoulder, for at first I felt too weak to walk by h the stones and skeletons of elephants across the plateau eastwards, that is, away froedy was a mound of rock similar to that on which Jana had appeared, butas a well-trained beast of the sort should do and tethered to a stone

As ent, in brief but sufficient language Hans told me his story

It seeeneral it caht be of more use to me free than as a coht in that case live to bring vengeance on my slayers So he broke away, as has been described, and hid till nightfall on the hill-side Then by the light of the es, and ultimately found a place of shelter in a kind of cave in the forest near to Siht, concealing it at dawn in the cave The days he spent up a tall tree, whence he could watch all that went on in the town beneath, livingtied to the saddle, helped out by greenfield

Thus he sawthe desolation wrought by the fearful te in their cave, both he and the ca from his post of outlook up the tree, where he had now so himself because the hail had stripped off all its leaves, he saw Mart and uest-house and taken away by the escort

Descending and running to the cave, he saddled the ca into the forest and hiding there when he perceived that the escort were leaving us

Here he waited until they had gone by on their return journey So close did they pass to him that he could overhear their talk, which told him they expected, or rather were sure, that we should be destroyed by the elephant Jana, their devil God, to whom the camelmen had been already sacrificed After they had departed he remounted and followed us Here I asked him why he had not overtaken us before we caht have done, since he stated that he was close in our rear This indeed was the case, for it was the head of the camel I saw behind the thorn trees when I looked back, and not the trunk of an elephant as I had supposed

At the tirew ht it best to keep in the background and see what happened Long afterwards, however, he admitted to me that he acted on a presentiment

”It seemed too on and not show myself, since if I did so we should all three be killed, as one of us must hom the other two could not desert Whereas if I left you as you were, one of you would be killed and the other escape, and that the one to be killed would not be _you_, Baas All of which came about as the Spirit spoke in my head, for Mart was killed, who did not matter, and--you know the rest, Baas”