"That sort of talk is foolish, Burton," said Matt. "I remembered what Dhondaram had said about not being a coward around Rajah, so I jumped in and got between the elephant and the machine. But there's no use talking now. The aëroplane has been saved, and there's nothing much the matter with me."
"There is some use of talking," snapped Burton. "Here comes Dhondaram, with Ping. Now we can find out how Rajah got away. Dhondaram has starred himself—I don't think. If that's the best he can do, on his first try-out, I might as well give him the sack right here."
The Hindoo and the Chinese boy were coming through the excited crowd toward the aëroplane. Dhondaram staggered as he walked, and there was a wild look in his face.
"What's the matter with you, Dhondaram?" demanded Burton sharply, as the eyes of the little group near the Comet turned curiously on the Hindoo.
"I was sick, sahib," mumbled the brown man, laying both hands on the pit of his stomach and rolling his eyes upward.
"Sick?" echoed Burton incredulously. "It must have come on you mighty sudden."
"It did, sahib. I came in from the parade, then all at once I could not see and grew weak—jee, yes, so weak I could not stay on Rajah's back, but fell to the ground and lay there for a moment, not knowing one thing. When I came to myself I was in a tent, and the feringhi sahib,"—he pointed to McGlory—"and the Chinaman sahib were getting clear of their clothes. When I get enough strength, I come here. Such bhat, sahib. What I say is true."
"You had Rajah properly tamed," went on Burton; "I never saw him act better in the parade than he did this morning. What caused him to make such a dead set at this flying machine the moment you dropped off his back?"
"Who can say, sahib?" asked Dhondaram humbly. "He not like the machine, it may be. Has he a cause to dislike the bird-wagon? The elephant, Burton Sahib, never forgets. A hundred years is to him as a day when it comes to remembering."
One of the canvasmen stepped up and asserted that he had seen Dhondaram drop off Rajah's back and then get up and reel away. Thereupon the canvasman, expecting trouble, called for some of the other animal trainers, and they picked up the first things they could lay hands on and started after the charging elephant.