The elephant had one advantage over Vic. The animal, though under water, could raise the tip of his trunk above water and thus breathe easily. Vic did not have the same equipment. He could keep his head above water only by standing up on the elephant’s back.
Hal and Roger came running along the bank.
‘Look out!’ Hal yelled. ‘You’ll drown. Swim to the shore.’
‘I can’t swim,’ came from the miserable Vic.
Just in time, the elephant solved that problem. He came up on shore. Both he and his rider were completely covered with a coat of mud which the elephant’s feet had churned up from the bottom of the river.
Hal and Roger ran to help Vic down. Before they could do so the elephant decided to clean the mud off his hide. He threw his trunk back and vigorously sprayed water not only over himself but over the three boys. Vic slid down and joined the other two. They were a pretty sad sight as they stood there, dripping muddy water from their hair, faces and clothes.
But the worst was yet to come. Because insects were stinging him, the elephant scooped up sand and covered himself with it as protection against these little pests. Of course the boys got their full share of the sand in their hair, on their faces and all over their clothing. Now they looked worse than ever.
The mahout had arrived. He could hardly recognise these three disgraceful tramps.
The elephant had quietened down now that there was no one on his back and his mahout was there to take care of aim. They all returned to the timber-yard.
That will be a hundred rupees,’ said the mahout.
Hal was surprised. ‘For what?’ he said.
‘For the ride.’
‘But nobody wanted to ride,’ objected Hal.
‘But your friend did ride.’
Rather than continue the argument, Hal paid one hundred rupees. Then he said, ‘Now, what are you going to pay us for all the trouble your elephant gave us? He could have killed my friend. He went wild and you had no control over him. Our clothes are spoiled, perhaps ruined.’
The mahout laughed. That’s just your bad luck,’ he said.
‘Let me see how much you should pay us,’ Hal said. ‘I think that one hundred rupees would be just about right.’
‘You’ll never get it out of me,’ said the mahout.
That’s all right,’ Hal said, looking at the sign ‘Abu Singh Teak Company’, ‘we’ll just report all this to your boss, Abu Singh.’
The mahout was no longer laughing. ‘Oh don’t do that, please. He would fire me. Here’s your hundred rupees.’
He passed back the money to Hal and the three boys went home.
‘He wasn’t such a bad fellow after all,’ Roger said. ‘And he spoke our language pretty well. I’m surprised that so many people in India speak English.’
‘It’s not surprising,’ Hal said. The British ruled India for three hundred years. They started hundreds of schools and taught English and Hindi in every one. Now that the British have left, India still teaches English.’
‘Why?’
‘Because English is a world language and India wants to keep up with the world.’
Chapter 8
The Great Round-up
How do the timber-yards get their elephants?
Hal and Roger were going to find out today.
Wild elephants that roamed the Gir Forest and had never seen a timber-yard were going to be caught and sold later to the teak kings such as Abu Singh of the Abu Singh Teak Company.
Hundreds of ‘beaters’ would scour the Gir Forest in a search for wild elephants. They would then beat pans and scare the elephants through the forest into a great corral which had already been built. There was room in it for a hundred elephants or more. The corral was surrounded by a fence, not an ordinary fence which the elephants could easily break down, but a fence of great logs, every one of them a foot thick.
Tame elephants, each one with a mahout on its back, would help to drive the wild ones into the corral.
Roger and Hal wanted to see the whole show.
Some of the mahouts were not very kind to their animals. Roger saw one goading his elephant with a sharp stick. He kept it up until the beast became angry. Finally the elephant tossed his trunk, wrapped it around the mahout, and flung him down on the ground with great force.
The mahout’s head struck a stone, and he lay as if dead. Roger called Hal.
‘See what you can do for this brute. He was hurting his elephant - and he got what he deserved. Perhaps he’s dead.’
Hal bent over the unconscious mahout. Blood was flowing from the injured scalp. But Hal noticed that the man was still breathing.
‘I’ll take him to the hospital.’
Both boys lifted the body and put it into the back of their truck. Hal drove off.
The mahout’s elephant was very nervous. He knew what he had done and was afraid of being punished. He trumpeted loudly. Roger put his hand on the elephant’s neck and patted him gently while speaking comforting words.
There, there. It’s all right. You did just the right thing. Don’t worry. He’s not going to prod you any more.’
Although the elephant could not understand what Roger was saying, he did understand the petting and the quiet voice. He was a friend. He stopped his trumpeting and stamping about. He looked at Roger from head to foot. Yes, he could trust this human. He wrapped his trunk around the boy and lifted him to his back.
Roger had become a mahout. He didn’t quite know what to make of all this, but he had heard that you steer an elephant by pressing your toes against his neck on one side or the other, depending on where you want to go.
So off they went, boy and beast, both quite content. Roger began looking for a wild elephant that he could drive into the corral.
But things were not going to be so easy for the juvenile mahout. Passing by a bank as high as the elephant’s back, he was suddenly aware that he had company. A low growl announced that something had stepped from the high bank on to the elephant’s back - something that was fond of elephant meat. Roger looked round, but the shade of the trees was so dense that he could hardly decide whether his new companion was a tiger or a leopard. A shaft of sunlight came through the trees and he saw that his guest was a great brown bear.
His father had asked for a Himalayan bear and here it was. But the bear had arrived at a very inconvenient moment. How could Roger get him home and into a cage?
And just how patient would the bear be?
‘Not very patient,’ Roger thought, ‘if that growl means anything.’ Shivers ran up and down his backbone as he waited for the bear to come forward and attack him.
But the bear had a problem of his own. He was not used to riding an elephant. The rolling motion of the big beast made it difficult for him to hang on. He was too busy keeping his balance to bother about the boy away up forward on the elephant’s neck. He dug his claws into the thick hide and his growl became a roar.
Roger turned the elephant towards home. He hadn’t the faintest idea what he would do when he got there. Luckily, it was less than a quarter mile and he soon drew up before the cages.
He wished that Hal was there to help get the big brown animal into a cage. Hal was not there, but Vic was. Hal had told him to feed the animals and he was doing that. He saw Roger - then his eyes travelled back to the great brown beast and Vic took to his heels.
‘Come back here,’ Roger called. ‘Come back and open a cage.’
Vic, trembling, crept back with his eyes fixed upon the bear. If the beast roared he would run again and he wouldn’t come back.
‘Open the cage door,’ Roger said. That stuff you’ve been feeding the deer, put a lot of it in the cage.’
Vic did as he was told. The bear stopped roaring. His eyesight was not so good, but his sense of smell was fine. Here was breakfast all set out for him. With a low rumbling sound that meant a good appetite, he jumped down and entered the cage.
‘Close the door,’ yelled Roger.
; With the door closed and locked, Vic sang a different tune.
‘I got him. I got him. Your brother will have to pay me fifty dollars. I risked my life to get that beast. Fifty dollars!’
As usual, Vic took all the credit.
Roger did not stop to argue but, touching his toes to the elephant’s neck, he returned to the round-up.
‘Where have you been?’ Hal demanded rather crossly. ‘Can’t you stick to your job?’
‘I just went home for a bit.’
‘Why did you go home?’
‘You’ll find out when you get there.’
The elephant was wise enough to know that his friend Roger was being scolded. With his trunk he picked Hal up as easily as if the boy had been a feather, and planted him in a mud puddle.
Hal returned to his truck thinking that there was nothing in the world so wonderful as an elephant’s trunk.
With his trunk an elephant could breathe, could drink, could shower himself with water or sand, could pick up twigs and use them as a fly-swatter to brush the insects from his hide. He could smell with his trunk, he could gather food and carry it to his mouth. He could clear bushes out of his way, he could purr, he could roar, he could frighten other animals by banging his trunk against the ground, he could seize a tiger or any other enemy, he could whack anyone or anything that got in his way. He could show affection by caressing his mahout with his trunk, and he could plant Hal in a mudhole. The trunk was the most dangerous part of an elephant - and the most useful. Hal was surprised that the elephant had become so fond of his kid brother. But Roger had a way with animals - they all liked him.
Now there was a terrific noise as the beaters came, driving the wild elephants into the corral. The elephant may be big, but he scares easily. The beaters were beating gongs, bells, drums, sending up fireworks that exploded in the sky, and every beater was shouting at the top of his lungs.
When all were inside, tame elephants were sent in, each with a mahout on its back. The job of the tame elephants was to quiet the wild ones and give them their first training.
Every newcomer was joined by two tame elephants, one on either side of him. They stuck so close to him that he had to stop roistering around wildly and begin to realise that, although he was a captive, life was not going to be so bad after all. A few days in the corral with his tame companions would calm him down. Then he would not be too excited when a mahout got on his back and continued his training. If the mahouts were kind it did not take more than a few days before the strangers would feel less strange and could start work in the many timber-yards.
In the timber-yard they would quickly pick up the twenty-seven words that every logging elephant is supposed to learn. Each word called for a different action. Of course the elephants could not speak the words, but they could hear them, and with a little experience they could do exactly what the mahouts wanted them to do. It must always be the same word for the same action. If a different word were used, the animals would not understand.
Arriving home from the round-up, Hal was astonished to see a big Himalayan bear neatly caged.
‘How did you do that?’
Roger began to answer but Vic cut him off. ‘It was a good deal of work,’ said Vic, ‘and pretty dangerous. But I got him at last. That will be fifty dollars.’
Hal looked at Roger. Roger winked, but said nothing. Hal guessed it was mostly Roger’s work rather than Vic’s. But since Vic had not caught anything yet and might be getting discouraged, Hal gave him the money.
From that time on Vic took everyone to see the bear and told them how brave he had been to catch and cage such a monster.
Roger had taken the elephant back to the round-up. He noticed a wild elephant that was dancing about and trumpeting furiously. A tame elephant was on one side, but there should have been one on the other side. The temporary mahout, Roger Hunt, brought his elephant up where it was needed, and two tame animals pressed closely against the troublemaker to calm him down.
An hour later Hal showed up. ‘You and your elephant seem to be very fond of each other.’ Hal said.
‘We are.’ said Roger, ‘and I hate to give him up.’
‘You don’t need to. He’s your elephant. At least until we ship him home to Dad.’
‘My elephant? But he isn’t mine.’
‘I’ve just been to the hospital to see the mahout.’ Hal said. ‘He gave me the name of the owner. I went to him and bought the elephant. You remember Dad wanted an Indian elephant. We couldn’t get a better one than this. So, until we go home, he’s yours.’
‘But he must have cost you a mint of money.’
‘Not so much. And Dad will be able to get a good price for him.’
Roger was choked up. ‘Hal.’ he managed to say, ‘you’re a good guy. This critter put you in a mudhole. That’s enough to make a fellow mad. But you don’t get mad. Instead, you do this nice thing.’
‘Save your breath.’ said Hal, embarrassed. He called to a mahout who happened to be free. ‘Want to take over? We’re going home.’
The exchange was made. Hal climbed the log fence and perched on their elephant behind his brother. Home they went AH three of them, counting the elephant, were very well satisfied. Big Fella, as they called him, was put into a cage.
‘You’ll have to get busy and find some fodder for him.’ Hal said. ‘Big Fella will eat six hundred pounds a day!’
Chapter 9
The Boy and the Beast
The terrible gaur. It rhymes with power and it rhymes with sour.
Both words describe him well. He had more power than any other member of the wild ox family. And he was as sour as vinegar, grumpy, crusty, cranky, cross and savage.
He stood seven feet high, his two upturned horns were each three feet long, his ears were large, his food was grass, bamboo shoots, twigs and leaves of various trees and bushes.
A headman told the boys, ‘When the gaur is attacked it will pick up a stone in its nose and blow it out with a force great enough to kill a man.’
The boys took this with a grain of salt, but they were ready to believe that the gaur was a very bad customer.
‘If he gets you on his horns.’ said the headman, ‘he will carry you for miles, no matter how heavy you are - then he will shake you off and may stamp you to death.’
But Dad had ordered a gaur, and a gaur he should have. How could two boys capture such a formidable beast?
‘We’re apt to find him anywhere between here and six thousand feet up the mountain.’ Hal said. ‘We’ll use the truck. And we’ll take along a pole lasso.’
A pole lasso consisted of a long pole with a loop of rope at the end. With luck, they might get this loop over the wide-spreading horns and then drive back to the cages and stow the beast away.
It seemed simple, but it was going to be very difficult.
They drove around most of the day and it was not until late in the afternoon that they came upon a herd of about a dozen gaur. They selected the biggest one and, poking him with the pole, made him run while the truck ran alongside.
Hal was driving, Roger held the pole. He got the lasso over one horn but the animal shook it off.
The gaur stopped, glaring at the truck, bellowed with rage, and charged.
The great strong horns smashed into the truck which immediately rolled upside down with the two boys beneath It The animal seemed to think that the truck was alive. Again and again he crashed into it, his horns making deep holes in the iron hide of the monster.
Then he remembered his tormentors and went about, snuffling loudly, bellowing, sending shivers of fear down two backbones. Time after time the angry beast hurled his two thousand pounds against the truck.
Finally he turned the car over and there, in plain sight, were the two boys sitting on the ground.
Now it was just ten seconds before they would both be dead, unless they acted as fast as lightning.
The gaur came for them, his eyes blazing red, his roar sounding like thunder, but whe
n he arrived the boys were in the truck, now upright, and all he could do was to give the truck some more punishment.
Hal started the truck. The gaur followed close behind, determined to kill this big iron brute and the two humans who rode in it.’
There is one animal that is not afraid of the gaur. It is the tiger. There was an explosion in the bushes and the big striped lord of the cat world leaped twenty feet to fasten its jaws on the gaur’s neck.
The boys might have been thankful but they were not. They didn’t want a dead gaur. ‘Use the lasso,’ Hal shouted.
Roger did so but the result was not too good. The loop at the end of the pole settled over the tiger’s neck.
Just at present they didn’t want a tiger. They wanted a gaur. At any other time they would have been grateful for the tiger’s help, but not now. Roger pulled lustily. The tiger’s jaws relaxed and with the claws of his two front feet he jerked off the noose that was choking him. He gave up the idea of having a gaur for dinner and slunk away into the bushes.
Now the gaur had lost not only some of its power but its sour too. It wasn’t chasing the truck with the same enthusiasm.
It was easy to see why. The teeth of the tiger had cut deeply into the neck of the gaur and blood was trickling out.
The beast turned its head to look after the tiger, and this was Roger’s opportunity. With its head turned, the three-foot horns and the head were all on one line, and with a flip of the noose the animal was captured.
He was suffering from a deep gash in the neck and had no more thought of charging either the truck or the boys.
He came along with his head hanging down and no more fight in him.
A cage that was too small for an elephant but just the right size for the great hump-backed terror of the Gir Forest was waiting for him.
The noose was still round his neck and the pole was fastened to the noose. ‘How can we get him in?’ Roger wondered.
‘Go into the cage and stick the pole through the back of the cage, take hold of the pole, and pull. I’ll be there to help you.’
Roger did as Hal had suggested. Then both boys went round behind the cage, took hold of the end of the pole, and hauled away on it with all their strength.
13 Tiger Adventure Page 4