ee it but the elephant."

Alec laughed. Yet, ghoul or not, there was something the huge beast
seemed afraid of and hurried to get away from, or attempted to frighten
back, without success.

It was a most weird and uncanny situation, and the boys longed for it to
end.

But a pleasant change was at hand. The heavens were rapidly lighting,
and soon the moon commenced to rise on the scene. A feeling of relief
grew with the strengthening light, for they were sure the ghostly terror
would disappear with the dark. The moon had partly risen when Tippoo
said, "Look, Sahib, there is the thing."

Alec looked, and in the uncertain light saw a shadowy something keeping
pace with the elephant, but what it was he could not say.

Then on the other side of the road they saw there was another moving
shadow as mysterious as the first. But they were not kept in suspense
much longer, for the light suddenly brightened, and they saw each weird
shadow transform itself into a number of jackals. The smell of blood
had attracted the pack, and they had made an attempt to get the dead
body away from Maharaj. The reaction on their strained nerves was so
great that the boys laughed aloud in pure joy at the sense of relief,
and wondered they had not guessed the cause of the elephant's
restlessness before.

For nearly four hours they had been on that apology for a neck, and
their limbs were painful and stiff from the discomfort of sitting so
close, when, without any warning, Maharaj came to a stop under a big
neem-tree, and they recognised it as the place at which they had taken
their midday meal going down to the village. Maharaj carefully placed
the body of Piroo on the ground and knelt down beside it, and the boys,
only too pleased at the chance, scrambled off as fast as their cramped
legs would permit. It needed some walking up and down to get rid of
their stiffness, so they chased the jackals and pelted them with stones,
which restored their circulation quickly, whilst Maharaj stood sentry
over the dead man.

Tired out and exhausted, the boys were anxious for a little sleep, but
they could not lie under the same tree as that gruesome thing, so they
lay down under a neighbouring sal. Alec was on the way to dreamland when
he felt he was being carried gently in some one's arms. He woke up and
found that Maharaj had lifted him in his trunk and that he was taking
him back to the tree where the dead lay. Here he placed Alec on the
ground alongs