Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/176

 will assuredly kill me. If he does not kill me you will know that he does not blame me. I think he blames only you."

"Will he remember me?" the scout demanded.

"As long as he lives he will remember you. If you go near him again you are a dead man."

"Will he chase me?" Hannibal pursued.

"That will he," the mahout ejaculated; "to the ends of the world will he pursue."

"How far off am I safe?" the scout continued.

"Only when out of his sight," the mahout affirmed, "and an elephant can see further than men would believe."

"Would he recognize me across the river?" Hannibal concluded.

"Yea," asserted the mahout, "and twice as far. He will know; he will not forget."

The head mahout had joined them while they talked. To him the scout turned. He had assumed his intensest air of command.

"Now attend to me!" he ordered. "When I am out of sight quiet this elephant. As soon as you think it safe remove his fetters, except one shackle. Bring up the others and have them lined up three or four to right and left of him, and the rest in the rear of the foremost row. Arrange them so that their formation is deeper than it is wide, and those in the rear can see as little as possible of what is going on ahead