"No; but I heard of a hungry one doing that once. I daresay we should know if one was near."
"How?"
"The elephant seems to see and know whenever he is near anything dangerous."
"Oh, only when there is a tiger or buffalo, Phra."
"This one notices everything, doesn't he, Sree?"
"Yes, Prince; he is a wonderful beast," replied the hunter, who, in spite of the rolling about, had carefully charged the four guns that had been brought, and replaced them lying upon the hooks within the howdah, ready to be seized at a moment's notice.
"We shan't see anything here," said Phra.
"Too thick," replied the hunter; "but there are plenty of beasts on either side now. In an hour though we shall reach a part where the sun can shine through."
"Hist! Something before us," whispered Phra stretching out his hand for a gun, an act imitated by Harry; for the elephant had suddenly stopped, thrown up its trunk, and as it gave vent to a rumbling sound which ended in the loud, highly-pitched cry which is called trumpeting, it shook its head from side to side, striking the branches with the ends of its long, sharp-pointed tusks, which were hooped in two places with bands of glistening silver.
"You had better take a gun too, Sree," said Harry, in a low voice, and the old hunter eagerly availed himself of the permission.