From time to
time he looked towards his master, but, receiving no signal to prepare to
move on, continued his meal.
At last the Major knocked out the ashes of his pipe, grinding them into the
earth with his heel lest a chance spark might start a forest fire, and
whistled to Badshah. The elephant came at once to him. From his haversack
Dermot took out a couple of bananas and held them up. The snake-like trunk
shot out and grasped them, then curving back placed them in the huge mouth.
Dermot stood up and, slinging his rifle over his shoulder, seized Badshah's
ears and was lifted again to his place astride the neck.
Once more the jungle closed about them, as the elephant moved off. The
rider, unslinging his rifle and laying it across his thighs, glanced from
side to side as they proceeded. The forest grew more open. The undergrowth
thinned; and occasionally they came to open glades carpeted with tall
bracken and looking almost like an English wood. But the great boughs of
the giant trees were matted thick with the glossy green leaves of orchid
plants, from which drooped long trails of delicate mauve and white flowers.
Just as they were emerging from dense undergrowth on to such a glade,
Dermot's eye was caught by something moving ahead of them. He checked
Badshah; and they remained concealed in in the thick vegetation.
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