Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/169



The chief measured with his keen eyes the sulky scout.

He read men instantly.

"Have your own way," he said.

"Pledge it in plain words," the scout insisted. "I'll have no blame through any uncertainties as to orders."

"Get the elephants over and kill one afterward if necessary."

"It will be the least valuable of the lot," the scout told him. He spoke to the mahout, who ran beside his pony as he trotted off. Arrived at the herd, Hannibal the Scout asked:

"Which is your most intractable beast?"

"Barranith," the mahout replied.

"Point him out," the scout commanded. The mahout did so.

"Get chains, mallets and stakes and peg him down tight by the river bank, facing across the river," the scout ordered.

Barranith was by no means the largest bull elephant of the herd. A dozen exceeded him in height and weight. But it took the six biggest, hustling him on all sides, to hold him while the dodging, skipping, squeaking mahouts pegged him down tight.

"The instant you displease him he is worse than a wild elephant," the head mahout told