"Bend down your head, Baldo!" he would order.
And Baldo, the biggest bull, in the middle of the front line, would bend down his head, and Gulab would climb up by one of the horns, scramble up Baldo's neck, and sit down on his back.
"March!" Gulab would order—and the whole herd would march.
Now, a few miles away there was a grand palace. In the palace was a little Prince, whose father was a Rajah—that is, a kind of king. The little Prince's birthday was coming, and his father ordered grand feasts for many days.
The Rajah had six English friends, who were quite big men. The Englishmen were very fond of tiger hunting, so the Rajah wanted to order a tiger hunt for them. But it is not easy to have a tiger hunt just when you want to have it. Why not? Because the tiger will not come out and be hunted just when you want him to. He would rather stay in his den.
So for a few days no one heard of a tiger prowling about. Then suddenly a strange piece of news came from that village where Gulab lived. It happened in this way:
One day Gulab took out the buffaloes to graze and to wallow. The buffaloes lay down in the shallow water for a while, and Gulab splashed about or tumbled in the mud near them. Then he got tired of doing that, and came out on the bank and played about there for a while.
Suddenly he heard a strange sound. It was one of the buffaloes, who had stood up in the water and was giving a low, deep bellow. Two or three other buffaloes stood up also, and gave a low, deep bellow. Then all at once the whole lot of them began to come out of the water.
Gulab stopped in his play to see what was wrong. But he could see nothing.
"What's the matter, Baldo?" he asked. "What's wrong, Chando?"