epeat the
words, as the elephant would find out the cheat.

The great beast stood a few minutes thinking, and then, swinging Tippoo
up, placed him on his neck, and came straight for the tree behind which
Alec was hiding.

For a moment a wild desire to escape came to the boy, and the next he
saw how hopeless it would be. The sal-tree he had sheltered behind was
too thick to climb, and the lowest branch was twenty feet from the
ground. To run would be just madness, for Maharaj would have caught him
before he could get to the nearest hut. So, taking confidence from the
fact that he had not hurt Tippoo, Alec came out from behind the tree and
ordered Maharaj to take him up.

He was surprised at the exceeding gentleness with which he did so, but
when Alec was once seated astride of his neck with Tippoo behind him, he
did not know what to do. He thought he would walk the elephant round the
village and then tie him up in his pickets again. So he cried, "Chalo!
Bata!" (Go on, my son), and tried to guide him with his knees; but
Maharaj would not budge an inch, and stood stock still, considering.
Then he seemed to have made up his mind, and started forward suddenly
with a lurch that nearly threw the boys off.

He walked straight to the dead mahout and, carefully gathering him up in
his trunk, wheeled round and set off stationwards. He had remembered his
master's commands, and the journey to Cawnpore he must commence on the
morrow.

It was about eight o'clock in the evening, and Alec had no desire to
start travelling homeward at that hour. Besides, he had no food with
him, and the pad was not on the back of Maharaj. It is almost impossible
to ride an elephant bare back, and though these were only slips of boys
there wasn't room enough for two to sit comfortably on the neck. Alec
drove his knees into the elephant's head behind the ears and tried to
turn him round, shouting, "Dhutt, dhutt, arrea!" (Go back!), but it was
no use; the elephant had made up his mind to go home, and took not the
least notice of the boy's commands.

The head man of the village ran after them, crying--

"Where are you taking him, Sahib?"

"We take him nowhere," Alec answered. "He is master to-night, and
carries us home, I believe."

"But you cannot ride without the pad, Sahib, or the driving-hook, and
there are other things you leave behind."

"We will stick on his neck till we drop," he answered (for an elephant
is worth many thousand rupees to