And down the jungle path loomed the shape of a great elephant, moving at a gentle shuffle but an almost incredible speed.
Without audible instructions it stopped in front of the verandah, threw back its trunk, twined it gently about the middle of the mahout or driver, lifted him from his seat behind its ears and placed him on the ground; then on a word, trumpeted shrilly in greeting to Leonie.
"Oh!" said she as she almost sprang from her chair in delight. "Oh!"
The mahout salaamed, standing in the moonlight at the animal's head.
He made a vivid eastern picture, dressed as he was from head to foot in white, with two pleated side-pieces to the turban, hanging in suchwise as to conceal half the face; and the guide, who had been squatting on the edge of the path, also salaamed, smiling in glee at the mem-sahib's delight.
"Behold, mem-sahib," he said, "is the elephant even Rama, the pearl of the prince's stables." His English was not quite as intelligible as these printed words, but Leonie made shift to understand.
"I have never seen such a beautiful elephant," she said, walking up to the great beast, followed by the guide, the ayah and the bungalow factotum.
The mem's statement was quite within the range of possibility seeing that her elephant lore had been gathered from the Zoo and other low-caste specimens with their straight backs, mean tails, and long stringy legs.
"Does the—the mahout speak English, because my Hindustani is not very good. I would like to have the—the beauty of the animal explained to me, and why it has its face and body painted; and why does he, the mahout, I mean, wear those side pieces to the turban, they are very unusual."
A moment's pause, during which the mahout stood like a rock, and then the guide, shuffling his feet, answered to the effect that the driver could not speak English, but that her humble servant would translate if the mem-sahib would deign to listen to his mean speech; that the man was the prince's best beloved—mahout, he added after a second's pause, and that the side pieces were part of the uniform worn by the prince's head-mahouts.