see a gigantic living form, with huge
thick limbs, standing outside; but, indeed, both were as much terrified
by the apparition as Ossaroo himself, though perhaps for a different
reason.

Fritz must have been as much frightened as any of the four; and fear had
produced upon him an effect exactly similar to that it had produced upon
Ossaroo. It kept him silent. Cowering in a corner, Fritz was now as
quiet as if he had been born a voiceless _dingo_.

This speechless trance seemed to have its influence upon the
awe-inspiring shadow outside the door: for, after giving utterance to
another specimen of shrill piping, it withdrew with as much silence as
if it had been but the shadow it appeared!

Caspar's curiosity had become too strong to be kept any longer under the
control of his fears. As soon as the strange intruder was seen moving
away from the hut, he stole forward to the entrance, and looked out.
Karl was not slow in following him; and Ossaroo also ventured from his
hiding-place.

A dark mass--in form like a quadruped, but one of gigantic size--could
be seen going off in the direction of the lake. It moved in majestic
silence; but it could have been no shadow, for on crossing the stream--
near the point where the latter debouched into the lake--the plashing of
its feet could be heard as it waded through the water, and eddies could
be seen upon the calm surface. A simple shadow would not have made such
a commotion as that?

"Sahibs!" said Ossaroo, in a tone of mysterious gravity, "he be one ob
two ting. He eider be de god Brahma, or--"

"Or what?" demanded Caspar.

"An ole rogue."

CHAPTER SIX.

A TALK ABOUT ELEPHANTS.

"An old rogue?" said Caspar, repeating the words of the shikaree. "What
do you mean by that, Ossy?"

"What you Feringhee, sahib, call _rogue_ elephant."

"Oh! an elephant!" echoed Karl and Caspar--both considerably relieved at
this natural explanation of what had appeared so like a supernatural
apparition.

"Certainly the thing looked like one," continued Caspar.

"But how could an elephant enter this valley?"

Ossaroo could not answer this question. He was himself equally puzzled
by the appearance of the huge quadruped; and still rather inclined to
the belief that it was some of his trinity of Brahminee gods, that had
for the nonce assumed the elephantine form. For that reason he made no
attempt to explain the presence of such an animal in the valley.

"It is possible