“N-o, I don’t think so; only a bit helpless. It was so curious.”
“They have such power,” said Wyatt.
“So I suppose,” said Dick quietly: “but it was so curious to watch and listen to that mahout, sometimes scolding and sometimes petting the great elephant to let go. I hadn’t time to feel frightened. But it was awkward.”
“Yes,” said Wyatt dryly, “very awkward. Been worse, though, if he had dragged you closer and set one of his feet upon you.”
“Yes,” replied Dick thoughtfully; “an animal like that must be very heavy.”
Wyatt looked at the sergeant, and the sergeant raised his shaggy eyebrows a little as he returned the meaning look; and by that time they had reached the big entrance-door of the long, light building used as a riding-school.
Chapter VI.
Putting through the Paces.
However Richard Darrell might have felt when held by the elephant, he certainly was conscious of being uncomfortable now, for it was long since he had mounted a beast of any kind; and he was to take his seat upon a big, highly-trained trooper, in the presence of a man who was without doubt a magnificent horseman, as well as under the eye of one who acted as riding-master of the troop.
The place looked gloomy in the early morning—quite in accordance with the lad’s feelings—while as soon as he passed through the doorway, which had been made high enough to allow for the passage of mounted men, he was conscious of being in the presence of his mount—a big, restive-looking horse, gifted with the bad habit of showing the whites of its eyes and tossing up its head in what seemed to be a vicious way.