“Beg pardon; did anyone speak?” inquired the Officer in the most insulting of voices. For he despised the Elephant and wished to snub him.
“I asked you if the same might not happen to yourself?” the Elephant repeated, regardless of the Officer’s attempt to make him appear foolish. “What if the enemy serves you the same way?”
“That difficulty, my good beast,” he answered in his most overbearing manner, “is easily disposed of. We have special Soldiers trained to smell gunpowder. We have merely to send out these scouts, and we can trace the gunpowder anywhere within gunshot.”
“I don’t believe it,” said the Elephant.
The Officer at this laughed a grim laugh, truly awful to hear.
“Ha, Ha!” he exclaimed; “do not provoke me too far lest I slay you with my sword. I’m a man of sport, and to do the act would cause me no little diversion. Beware!”
The Elephant made no reply, which induced the Officer to think he had frightened him.
“A great clumsy beast of no spirit,” he said to his Soldiers.