Archie mounted to the hole, and saw, following steadily one after the other, four of the great beasts, with the little, squat driver seated on the neck of the last; and after they had pa.s.sed, loafing carelessly along as if he were too important and disdained to be driven, came the Rajah, muttering as if to himself, and walking straight up to the big stable door before going on to take his bath.

Archie dropped down, after seeing that the sentry was quietly rolling up a fresh betel-quid, and Peter stood aside for his companion to take his place by the basket.

"Never mind me, sir. Let him stroke you over as much as he likes; and you mustn't mind if he smells you too much with the wet end of his trunk. I want you to be as good friends as me and him is."

The result was that Archie fed the great beast, and was caressed, the sensation being upon the lad, as he listened to the flapping of the elephant's ears, that the beast's two little, pig-like eyes were piercing some crack in the door and watching him intently.

Then, as if quite satisfied with his share in the provender, which he must have taken as a dainty addition to the vast quant.i.ties of jungle gra.s.s and leaf.a.ge which formed his real support, the elephant swung off, bowing his huge head and muttering softly, to overtake his companions, while Peter gave his officer a very knowing look.

"There, sir," he said, "that's just what we want, only no sentry. You will have to creep out with the prog and the spears, and the krises when they comes, which we shall have all ready, while I'm feeding him, and then go on yourself giving him some bread which we will save up for him.

I shall join you, and tell him to kneel down; up we gets. You will crawl on and hold on by the ropes while I settle down with my legs under his ears. It will be just as easy as A, B, C."

"_IF_," said Archie, in capital letters.

But the days pa.s.sed wearily on; provisions were stored up, and there had been no chance of securing a kris, let alone two, and Peter declared that it was all out of aggravation that some sentry or another always took up his daily task before the elephants came.

"They are making a regular custom of it, sir," he said. "Cuss them!"

"What's that, Pete?"

"I only said _custom_, sir. I warn't swearing. I won't say what I might have said if you hadn't been here."

That very afternoon, as if fate had become weary of fighting against them, Peter, who had been watching the sentry's weapons with covetous eyes till it was beginning to grow dusk, suddenly uttered an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.

"What is it, Pete?"

"Look here, sir. Be smart, before it gets dark. I have been watching this 'ere chap for a hour. He has been nodding off to sleep all the time, and now he's off sound."

"What of that?"

"Kris, sir," said the lad; and crossing the floor of the great building, he climbed cleverly up to the thatch and pa.s.sed out, and Archie heard a faint rustling, and then sat listening in the dark till, after what seemed to be an impossibly short s.p.a.ce of time, the rustling began again, and a few minutes afterwards Peter, panting heavily, dropped down on his knees by the subaltern's side.

"Well, was it still too light for you to venture?" asked Archie.

"Poof!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the lad. "Ketch hold 'ere, sir;" and he thrust the pistol-b.u.t.t-like handle of a kris into his companion's hand. "Sound as a top, sir. Ain't that prime! Don't I wish he had had a mate, so that I could have got two!"

"But he will miss it as soon as he wakes," exclaimed Archie.

"Not 'im, sir; and if he does, he'll think that one of his mates has been larking. Wait a bit, and I shall get another chance, for we ought to have two."

But Fate was going to smile again, for the very next morning, in a wild state of excitement, the lad gripped his young officer's hand tightly between his own.

"No larks, sir," he half-sobbed. "Don't gammon me. If you don't feel strong enough, say so, and we'll wait."

"What do you mean? What's the matter?" whispered back Archie.

"Look there, sir! The helephants are coming, and there ain't no sentry."

"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Archie, wild now with excitement, "I'm strong enough for anything."

"Then take it coolly, sir, just as if we weren't going to make a bolt.

That chap must have been a bit sick last night, or been taking bhang or something, and he's overslept himself this morning. Now then! Spears-- kris--victuals. Ready for action. Let's get part of the prog on to the thatch. You hand it up to me, and then mount yourself.--Oh dear, we sha'n't have half enough time!"

"But suppose the sentry comes?"

"Lie down on the thatch. You will be out of sight."

The low muttering of the elephants was heard as Peter scrambled up to his hole in the roof. Archie handed up the spears, which the lad took, and used one to help him in drawing up the basket of provisions, leaving Archie to follow with a couple of cakes thrust into his breast; and by the time the young subaltern was climbing along the thatch preparatory to lowering himself down, five of the elephants had shuffled by, with the squat little driver mounted on the last, and disappeared round a curve of the narrow elephant-path.

As usual, their great fellow, Rajah, as Peter called him, was coming muttering up, apparently only seeing the ground just where he was about to plant his feet, so that he started and prepared to swerve as he suddenly caught sight of the private standing waiting for him, this being something entirely fresh.

But Peter did not lose his presence of mind; he called him by name and held out a piece of the cake, when the great animal uttered a loud grunt, stopped short, and extended his trunk, not to grasp the tempting offering, but to bring to bear his wonderful sense of smell before he was satisfied.

Then he pa.s.sed his trunk over the lad's chest, muttering pleasantly the while, and taking the piece of cake, transferred it to his cavernous mouth.

"Now, Mister Archie, sir, bring what you can, and never mind the rest.

We haven't a moment to spare. Come gently, whatever you do."

Archie was slowly descending the slope of the great thatched roof, which seemed to be a perfectly easy task, but so novel to one who had not had Peter's experience that when he had nearly reached the eaves and was planting his feet carefully, in preparation for lowering himself down the eight or nine feet of perpendicular wall, whose trellis-work would afford him support, the tied-in piece of flat stone upon which he had planted his foot suddenly gave way, and slipped from the thin cane. A faint cry escaped from the young officer's lips as he grasped at the brittle attap mat, which gave way at once. He slipped over the ragged mat which formed the eaves, and the next moment, _crack, crack, crack_, he was hanging feet downwards, and then fell heavily in a cloud of dust b.u.mp upon the trampled earth, in company with a snake about six feet long, which began to glide rapidly away.

"You've done it, sir!" panted Peter; and then loudly, "It's all right, old man," he continued, as he held out the rest of the piece of cake.

"That's only his way of coming down. Whatcher frightened about? Oh, I see; it's that snake;" and catching up one of the spears which he had leaned up against the big door, he used it pitchfork fashion to the writhing reptile, and sent it flying upward on to the roof, for it to begin scuffling away amidst the leafy thatch.

_Phoonk_! said the elephant; and he slowly turned himself as if upon a pivot, and extended his trunk to the coveted cake.

"Don't say you are hurt, sir!" whispered Peter. "You can go on, can't you? Oh, do say you can!"

"Yes, yes," panted Archie confusedly; "I think I am all right."

"Then here goes for it, sir. I don't feel a bit sure, but I am going to try as soon as I have fed him a bit more. Don't you bother about the prog. I am going to make him carry it as inside pa.s.sengers. It will please him, and if he will carry us we will eat leaves or gra.s.s.--Come on, old man. Here you are! Ripe 'nanas, and one of them pumpkin things. What! rather have the pumpkin first?" he continued, as the great trunk curved slowly towards the golden-hued, melon-like fruit.

"Can't swallow that all at once, can you? And I don't want to stop and cut it. What! you can? Oh, all right, then. I forgot you'd got grinders as big as meat-tins.--Good-bye, pumpkin.--Now, Mister Archie, I am not sure, but I think I can say what the mahout does when he wants him to kneel down. Then don't you stop a moment, but climb up and get hold of them ropes that he has got round him, pull yourself up, and hold on. Ready?"

"Yes," said Archie dreamily; but he was shaken up and confused by his fall.

"Now, Rajah, kneel down!" cried Peter, in the nearest approach he could recall to the Malay mahout's command; and, to his great delight, the huge beast swayed from side to side and sank upon the earth, at the same time curving his trunk towards Peter as he raised his head.

"There you are," cried Peter, as he pa.s.sed a couple of the bananas he held ready, and the moment these had been grasped and the trunk lowered again, "Now then, up with you!" cried the lad; and planting a foot upon one of the corrugations of the wrinkling trunk, Archie began to scramble up, pa.s.sing over the animal's forehead, up between the extended ears and over the rugosities between head and neck.

He nearly slipped as he reached for one of the ropes that girdled the animal's loins, but recovered himself, and, to Peter's satisfaction, seated himself, holding on tightly by the howdah-stays.

"Here you are!" cried Peter again, and this time he handed a great lump of cake, which the elephant took contentedly.--"Now, Mister Archie, sir," he cried, as he seized the two spears and handed them up, "take hold; I'll carry one by-and-by.--Now, old chap," he continued, "it's my turn now. Up with you!" And once more his memory served him in giving some rendering of the mahout's command, for in his slow, lumbering fashion the monster began to sway.

"Hold tight, sir, whatever you do," cried Peter.

"Yes. Are you going to walk?"

"Not me, sir; but I do wish that we hadn't got to leave that basket behind."

By this time the towering beast was once more upon its feet, and Peter was puzzling his head for an order he had forgotten; but just as some misty notion of the Malay words was hovering in his brain the great trunk encircled his waist, he was lifted from the ground, and the next minute he was gliding safely into the mahout's place, his widely outstretched legs settling themselves behind the monster's ears.