oes beautiful
magic, with his passion and with his pain. It's practically worship,
you understand; but the point is, it works!

"The mahouts say Neela Deo did the thing for me; stood up and took it,
till he could kill the beast without killing me. Oh, you'll never
convince them otherwise. They'll make much of it. They're already
pledged to establish it in tradition--which means more than one would
think. These mahouts come of lines that know the elephant from before
our ancestors were named. They know him as entirely as men can. All
his customs are common knowledge to them--in all ordinary and in all
extraordinary circumstances. They say that once in many generations an
elephant appears who is superior to his fellows--he's the one who
sometimes surprises them."

The Chief Commissioner stopped, looking into Skag's eyes for a minute,
before he finished:

"I'm a Briton, you understand; stubborn to a degree--positively require
demonstration. I'm not qualified to open the elephant-cult to
you--it's as sealed as anything--but I've had bits; and I recommend
you--if you'll permit me--to give courtesy to whatever the mahouts may
choose to tell you. You'll find it more than interesting."

"I'm very grateful to you," Skag answered. "I've had a promise of
something and I mean to know more about the mahouts and about
elephants."

It was well on in the night when the elephants turned down out of the
great highway into their own stockades. Neela Deo staggered and swayed
ever so slowly forward, with his head low and his trunk resting heavy
and inert on Kudrat Sharif's shoulder; but he got in.

After that no man saw him for sixteen weeks--save the mahouts of his
own stockades. But every morning the flower merchants sent huge mounds
of flower garlands to comfort him.

Then a proclamation was shouted in the marketplace--in the name of the
Chief Commissioner--calling all to come and sit in seats which had been
prepared around the parade ground before his elephant stockades--to
witness the celebration of Neela Deo's recovery. Great was the
rejoicing.

Many Europeans of distinction answered the Chief Commissioner's
invitation--from as far as Bombay. But all the Europeans together
looked very few; for from the surrounding villages and towns and
cities, a vast multitude had been flooding in for days. Sixty-two
thousand people found places in good sight of the arena, in prepared
seats. That number had been reckoned f