again it was to see
poor Marut higher in the air than ever he flew before. I thought that
he would never come down, but he did at last with an awesome thud. Jana
went to him and very gently, now that he was dead, picked him up in his
trunk. I prayed that he might carry him away to some hiding-place and
leave me in peace. But not so. With slow and stately strides, rocking
the deceased Marut up and down in his trunk, as a nurse might rock
a baby, he marched on to the very stone where I lay, behind which I
suppose he had seen or smelt me all the time.

For quite a long while, it seemed more than a century, he stood over me,
studying me as though I interested him very much, the water of the lake
trickling in a refreshing stream from his great ears on to my back. Had
it not been for that water I think I should have fainted, but as it was
I did the next best thing--pretended to be dead. Perhaps this monster
would scorn to touch a dead man. Watching out of the corner of my eye, I
saw him lift one vast paw that was the size of an arm-chair and hold it
over me.

Now good-bye to the world, thought I. Then the foot descended as a
steam-hammer does, but also as a steam-hammer sometimes does when used
to crack nuts, stopped as it touched my back, and presently came to
earth again alongside of me, perhaps because Jana thought the foothold
dangerous. At any rate, he took another and better way. Depositing the
remains of Marut with the most tender care beside me, as though the
nurse were putting the child to bed, he unwound his yards of trunk and
began to feel me all over with its tip, commencing at the back of my
neck. Oh! the sensation of that clammy, wriggling tip upon my spinal
column!

Down it went till it reached the seat of my trousers. There it pinched,
presumably to ascertain whether or no I were malingering, a most
agonizing pinch like to that of a pair of blacksmith's tongs. So sharp
was it that, although I did not stir, who was aware that the slightest
movement meant death, it tore a piece out of the stout cloth of my
breeches, to say nothing of a portion of the skin beneath. This seemed
to astonish the beast, for it lifted the tip of its trunk and shifted
its head, as though to examine the fragment by the light of the moon.

Now indeed all was over, for when it saw blood upon that cloth----! I
put up one short, piteous prayer to Heaven to save me from this terrible
end, and lo, it was answered!

For just as Jana, th