the stones at a distance
of a hundred yards or so, possibly the shadow of a cloud or another
elephant. At the time I did not ascertain which it was, since a faint
rattle from Jana's trunk reconcentrated all my faculties on him in a
painfully vivid fashion.

I looked to see that all the contemplation had departed from his
attitude, now as alert as that of a fox-terrier which imagines he has
seen a rat. His vast ears were cocked, his huge bulk trembled, his
enormous trunk sniffed the air.

"Great Heavens!" thought I to myself, "he has winded us!" Then I took
such consolation as I could from the fact that the next gust once more
struck upon my forehead, for I hoped he would conclude that he had made
a mistake.

Not a bit of it! Jana as far too old a bird--or beast--to make any
mistake. He grunted, got himself going like a luggage train, and with
great deliberation walked towards us, smelling at the ground, smelling
at the air, smelling to the right, to the left, and even towards heaven
above, as though he expected that thence might fall upon him vengeance
for his many sins. A dozen times as he came did I cover him with an
imaginary rifle, marking the exact spots where I might have hoped to
send a bullet to his vitals, in a kind of automatic fashion, for all my
real brain was contemplating my own approaching end.

I wondered how it would happen. Would he drive that great tusk through
me, would he throw me into the air, or would he kneel upon my poor
little body, and avenge the deaths of his kin that had fallen at my
hands? Marut was speaking in a rattling whisper:

"His priests have told Jana to kill us; we are about to die," he said.
"Before I die I want to say that the lady, the wife of the lord----"

"Silence!" I hissed. "He will hear you," for at that instant I took not
the slightest interest in any lady on the earth. Fiercely I glared at
Marut and noted even then how pitiful was his countenance. There was no
smile there now. All its jovial roundness had vanished. It had sunk in;
it was blue and ghastly with large, protruding eyes, like to that of a
man who had been three days dead.

I was right--Jana _had_ heard. Low as the whisper was, through that
intense silence it had penetrated to his almost preternatural senses.
Forward he came at a run for twenty paces or more with his trunk held
straight out in front of him. Then he halted again, perhaps the length
of a cricket pitch away, and smelt as before.

The s