“Oh, well, if you don’t mind, I don’t, because I shall be over there. But, all the same, I shouldn’t like to see him kick up behind and throw you over his head.”
Singh uttered an impatient ejaculation, and began to climb on to the animal’s neck.
“No, no,” cried Glyn. “I’m going to get off now.”
“No; you must wait till I am up there behind you, and then as you get down I’ll slide into your place.”
“But you will have to tell him to lift up his ears, for he’s nipping my legs hard, and they feel as if they were going to hold me down.”
“It will be all right,” said Singh impatiently, and throwing his right leg over, he came down upon the elephant’s neck; while before the boys could grasp what was about to happen, the animal rose and began to turn round, slinging the massive iron peg over the palisade; and then, as he began to move off and the chain tightened, he drew with him eight or ten feet of the ornamental woodwork.
“Oh, what will the Doctor say?” cried Singh piteously.
“That he’ll stop your pocket-allowance to pay for it. Here, I say, old chap, do, do something to steer him.”
“But I haven’t got a—”
“Here, try a pin,” cried Glyn, making-believe to pull one out of the bottom corner of his waistcoat.