Archie looked at him piteously; his eyes seemed to say, “Pray, pray don’t keep talking!”
The look silenced his companion, and for half-an-hour at least not a word was spoken.
Plosh, plosh, suck, suck of the elephants’ feet went on in the same monotonous way. A gleam of sunshine now and then lightened the gloom of the tunnel-like path, but besides the dreary sound the silence was awful. By this time Archie seemed to be quite exhausted, and as Pete passed an arm round him and lowered him back on to the pad before slipping a hand into his waistband to ensure his not slipping off, the poor fellow’s eyes were half-closed, while those of his companion were fixed with the lids wide apart, and with a fierce, staring look gazed forward over the mahout’s head in the wild hope of seeing something that he could recognise, something that would prove that they really were on the path that led to headquarters.
“I’m about beat out,” said poor Peter to himself. “A chap wants to be made of iron to keep this up much longer, and I ain’t iron, only flesh and blood and bones, and them not best quality—upper crust. Oh! if I could only—” He stopped short with his lips apart, face down, and one ear turned in the direction in which the mahout was staring.
“Oh!” he panted once again, “is it, or am I getting delirious? Ah! there it goes again—or am I wrong? What’s a bugle going for at this time in the afternoon? I’m a-dreaming of it. No, I ain’t! Hooray!—Look up, Mister Archie, sir! It’s all right. Cheer up, sir!”
“What! What! Who spoke?” said the exhausted lad, making an effort, catching at Peter, and dragging himself up and sitting clinging tightly to his companion’s arm.
“Close in, sir. We shall be at the campong in five minutes, and in less than another on the parade-ground. Hooroar, sir! There’s no place like home, even if it’s out in a savage jungle.—Here, what are you panting at, sir, like that? Don’t do it! You ain’t been running.”
“You’re saying this to keep me up, Peter.”
“I ain’t, sir; I ain’t. Look! Look! You can see for yourself now. There, them’s the big trees where all the helephants sheltered at the review, and—brave old Rajah! He’s making for it straight. There’s a peep of the river too, and you can see the hut above the landing-place where I kept guard that night and listened to the crocs. Now then, what do you say to that? Am I right?”
Archie made no reply that was audible, but his lips parted as he muttered two words in fervent thanks; and the next minute Rajah had increased the rate at which he made his strides upon hard ground, and the open space before them was becoming dotted with moving men in their familiar white jackets, in consequence of an order that had been passed after a glass had been directed at the advancing elephant; while, as the great beast, as if quite accustomed to the place, strode in beneath the sheltering trees and stopped short, to stand with slowly swinging head on the very spot where Peter had first made his acquaintance, a burst of cheers rang out from officers and comrades, who came up at the double to welcome back those who had been given up for lost.