Hussein. Patrick O’Brian

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СКАЧАТЬ where is the proof?’ asked another youth, still more desirous of confounding Hussein.

      ‘Here is the gold,’ said Hussein, simply. He poured it in a shining heap from the bags in his dhoti. From all around there were admiring cries. ‘Bismillah! He is another Rustum,’ said someone.

      Gill crept away unheard, for he would not spoil a good tale, and besides, Hussein had really saved his life at least twice that day.

Five

      The road pushed its way slowly on and on. They cut through the jungle, and filled in swamps: they bridged two rivers, and blasted through solid hills of rock. All through the year Gill spent all the leave he could get in hunting: he knew that he would probably never have such opportunities again, and he made the most of the time: as often as he could he took Hussein and Jehangir.

      On one occasion, when they were after a leopard, Jehangir brushed against a tree in which there was a wild bees’ nest. They came out in a furious black cloud, and Hussein had to run for it — Gill was some distance away.

      He got as far as a stagnant pool, and he stayed there, only bobbing his head up to breathe, until dark, when the bees left him.

      At another time, when Gill was going into one of the Ghond villages far away in the jungle, they camped in the forest about half a day’s journey away from their destination.

      Hussein put a long piece of grass around Jehangir’s leg to show him that he was not to go far away in the night.

      The moon came down through the trees, making singularly delicate patterns on the ground: a few langurs howled and a leopard coughed far away. The men slept. Their fire glowed a dull red.

      Jehangir stood motionless, half of him silver in the moonlight: he was not asleep. Far away there was a noise to which he had been listening for some time: it was not the hunting leopard, nor the dismal howling of the apes, but a distant crashing sound. His trunk moved to and fro as he sought for a hint of a scent on the still air.

      A high pealing sound, very faint, came through the trees, and Jehangir spread his great ears. He looked at Hussein, who lay with his head on his arm by the fire, fast asleep; then he moved slowly away into the trees. Never a twig stirred as he faded into the shadows: he moved his great bulk as though it were no more substantial than a shadow itself.

      After a little he moved more quickly, but still silently. Elephants have a way of suddenly being there, without one having had a suspicion of their approach — rhinoceroses are the same. Again he heard the noise — the distant trumpeting of a wild elephant. He raised his trunk and trumpeted back. In the camp Hussein stirred, but he did not awake.

      Deep in Jehangir’s mind was the memory of the free days when he had followed the elephant herd with his mother — a half-grown young calf elephant. In the days of his freedom he had fought with other young elephants in the light of the full moon.

      He had heard the great bulls trumpeting to one another, and the crash as they joined in fight; and now the moon and the distant trumpeting combined with the forest to awaken his buried memories of the life he had led long ago — so long ago that three generations of men had passed since he was captured.

      An hour’s swift travelling brought him to a great open clearing in the trees. In the silver light two huge bull elephants were fighting: in the shadows the rest of the herd watched them.

      With their trunks intertwined, and their tusks locked, the elephants strove together with their foreheads together. They pushed, grunting, and their feet slid on the torn-up ground.

      For two full minutes they stood quite still, their forefeet clear of the ground. The strain must have been tremendous. Then there was an incredibly quick twisting of their trunks, and all at once the one nearer Jehangir crashed over on to his side. Instantly the other knelt on him, and thrust forward twice: he got up, and his tusks dripped red. The fallen elephant scrambled to his feet, and shuffled into the shadows.

      The other stood alone in the clearing: he raised his trunk, and sent out his challenge. Jehangir moved out from the shadows: there was a wild tingling in his blood; he trumpeted back.

      The elephant in the middle of the clearing spread his great ears, and glared at Jehangir with his little eyes: then he backed to the opposite side of the clearing. He trumpeted a shrill note of defiance, and charged. Jehangir met him half-way. The ground shook as they met head-on in the centre. They backed a little, and charged again.

      This time his opponent swerved a little as they met, and one of his tusks gashed Jehangir’s side. Jehangir, whose tusks were cut short, saw that he was at a disadvantage, so he closed. The other elephant sought to catch Jehangir’s trunk with his own, but Jehangir had a trick worth two of that, and as they struggled, forehead to forehead, he curled his trunk about the other’s left forefoot, suddenly jerking with all his strength. His opponent was taken by surprise, and fell heavily on to his side, but before Jehangir had time to kneel on him, the other got to his feet and broke away. For a few moments they watched each other across the clearing. Then Jehangir trumpeted and charged. The wild elephant dodged and thrust at Jehangir’s shoulder with his tusk: his thick hide was ripped open, but the wound did not go deep, and in another moment they were in the middle of the circle again, with their trunks intercoiled, pushing with all their strength.

      Jehangir felt himself being forced back, and he thrust forward with even greater force: he felt his skull almost cracking before the other yielded a little. He pressed his advantage, and shoved the wild elephant back and back. Suddenly the wild elephant tried to break free, so as to use his tusks; but as he stepped back to do so, Jehangir launched his whole weight on him, and he slid back several feet; then Jehangir, with all his strength twisted his opponent’s trunk. The animal collapsed on to his hindquarters, and then, as Jehangir thrust again, crashed over on to his side. He kicked wildly, but before he could rise, Jehangir was upon him, first knocking the breath out of his body by butting him in the stomach, and then kneeling on him.

      The wild elephant squealed like a huge pig, and Jehangir backed away. The tusker gasped twice, got up, and staggered away to the other edge of the clearing. There he turned and looked at Jehangir, who trumpeted again, and advanced a few steps. The wild elephant turned, and went crashing away through the forest, followed by all his herd, with the exception of the younger cow-elephants, who stayed to caress Jehangir with their trunks.

      Before dawn Jehangir was back in the camp, looking very innocent; but his wounds betrayed him, and Hussein beat his toe-nails, scolding him all the time.

      For the rest of the journey two of the she-elephants followed them at a distance, but Jehangir took no notice of them at all.

      The road pushed on and on: the men blasted through solid rock, and filled in swamps; they threw bridges across three streams, and at last they came to the village where the new road joined another, and their work was done.

      All the people were scattered to different parts of India: Gill was promoted to a better post in the hills — the result of his action against the dacoits. He wanted to take Hussein with him as his syce, and he offered good wages. For three days Hussein thought it over; Mustapha would not advise him, saying that it was his own life. In the end he felt that he could not leave Jehangir, so Gill went away without him.

      The elephants were sent to Haiderabad, where they worked on a great new embankment. By this time Hussein was a mahout in the Government service, and he rode a young bull elephant called Amurath. Amurath was an unintelligent beast as elephants go, but he had a good-natured, phlegmatic СКАЧАТЬ