cross
his chest. Mukna was unrepentant.

The messenger reached the palace and reported Mukna's disobedience; and
the elephant master said that he would come that afternoon to punish
Mukna.

The reigning prince said that he also would come. As he had just
ascended his throne, he wanted to teach a lesson to all criminals in his
domain from the beginning of his reign, and Mukna was the first to
commit a crime in the prince's reign. For, I must tell you, all
elephants in service in India are treated just like men; they are
rewarded as good citizens or punished as criminals. So Mukna was
regarded as a criminal.

The prince asked three other young princes, his cousins, to come with
him. A young American was then staying in the palace as a guest, and he
also was invited to come.

That afternoon the royal party went with the elephant master to the
place where the elephants were; there were about thirty bulls, besides
Mukna. The place was a clear space, about a hundred yards across, with
a lot of trees along the sides. Mukna was tied by the hind leg to one of
those trees.

The royal party got out of their carriages and entered the open space on
foot, quite near the spot where Mukna was tied up. They were not
thinking of Mukna just at that moment, as they were talking of the grand
feasts at the palace. So they did not notice Mukna at once.

Meanwhile Mukna had been brooding all day. He knew that his punishment
would come very soon. "I will do it--I will do it!" he must have been
saying to himself all the time. In that way he had worked himself into a
fury.

When the royal party entered the open space, the young American happened
to be nearest to Mukna. As he had just arrived from America, he did not
know much about elephants; so the young American did not notice that
Mukna was chained up to the tree by the hind leg, and that _he_ was the
bad elephant they had come to punish. Instead, the young American
thought that Mukna was just one of the ordinary tame elephants working
there.

So as the royal party happened to pass about ten yards in front of
Mukna, the young American stepped aside and said, "Hello, I must pat
you!" Saying that, he raised his hand and stepped toward Mukna to pat
him.

But meanwhile, when Mukna had seen the elephant master arrive with the
royal party, he knew that the moment of his punishment had come! "I will
do it--I will do it!" he had kept saying before. So when the young
American raised his h