ose eyes still held, might have missed the flash
of steel that Chakkra parried with his ankas. In fact, it was the
sound of a quick gasp of Margaret Annesley that made them turn, just as
Chakkra shouted:

"_By necessity_, Sahib! . . . It is accomplished!"

The other's blade had whirled into the water. They had heard the welt
as Chakkra's ankas came down. The strange mahout looked drunken and
spineless for a second; then there was a red gush under his white cloth
as he pitched into the stream.

The Great Dane had just caught up. He was in the river below them--not
doubting his part had come.

"Nels, steady! Let him go!" Skag called. "Don't touch, old man!"

And then, after the thief elephant, having no fight in him, was made
fast, they heard Chakkra singing his song, but paid no attention. . . .

It was a longer journey back to Hurda, for they came slowly, but there
was no haste; and two, at least, in the hunting howdah could transcend
passing time, each by the grace of the other. Gunpat Rao was returned
to the Deputy Sahib with an amulet to add to his trophy-winnings; and a
sentence or two that might have been taken from the record of Neela Deo
himself. The thief elephant was found to be a runaway that had fallen
into native hands. And Nels was restored to Bhanah by the way of the
heart of Carlin Deal. . . .

They never found out how far the two women would have been taken beyond
the Nerbudda. After they had first mounted into the red howdah at
Hurda, the messenger of the Kabuli had disappeared into the crowd and
was not seen again. . . . As for the monster himself, he had suffered
enough to plan craftily. (The Nerbudda took his mahout and covered him
quite as deeply as the crowd had covered his messenger at Hurda.)

Much in his silence afterward, and in the great still joy that had come
to him, Sanford Hantee chose to reflect upon the mystery of pain he had
known on the lonely out-journey--the spiritless incapacity to cope with
life--the loss even of his mastercraft with animals. He would look
toward Carlin in such moments and then look away, or possibly look
within. By her, the meanings of all life were sharpened--jungle and
jungle-beast, monster, saint and man--the breath of all life more keen.

CHAPTER X

_Hand-of-a-God_

Skag and Carlin had come back from Poona where five of Carlin's seven
brothers had been present at her marriage. There were weeks in Hurda
now, while Skag's equ