The Cliff Climbers | Page 8

a
place.
"By de wheels ob Juggernaut car!" he gasped out. "Can't be--can't be;

no possible him be here."
"Who? What?" demanded Karl and Caspar, in a breath.
"See, sahibs! it him--it him!" hurriedly rejoined the Hindoo, in a sort of
shrieking whisper. "We all perish--it him--it him--de god--de
mighty--de terrible--"
There was no light within the hovel, except a faint glimmer from the
moon shining brightly enough outside; but it did not require any light to
tell that the shikaree was frightened pretty nearly out of his senses. His
companions could discover by his voice that he had suddenly changed
position, and was retreating backward to that corner of the hut furthest
from the doorway. At the same time his words reached them in
whispers, cautioning them to lie close and keep silent.
Both, without knowing what the danger was, of course obeyed
injunctions thus emphatically delivered; and remained sitting up on
their couches without uttering a word. Ossaroo, after having delivered
his cautioning speeches, kept equally silent.
Once more the strange sound fell upon their ears--this time as if the
instrument that produced it had been thrust into the doorway of the
hovel. At the same instant the turf outside, hitherto glistening under a
bright moonlight, became darkened by the shadow of an enormous
creature--as if the queen of night had suddenly disappeared behind the
blackest of clouds! Still the light could be seen beyond, and the moon
was shining. It was no cloud that had obscured her; but some vast body
moving over the earth, and which, having come up to the front of the
hovel, was there halting.
Karl and Caspar fancied they could see a gigantic living form, with
huge thick limbs, standing outside; but, indeed, both were as much
terrified by the apparition as Ossaroo himself, though perhaps for a
different reason.
Fritz must have been as much frightened as any of the four; and fear
had produced upon him an effect exactly similar to that it had produced

upon Ossaroo. It kept him silent. Cowering in a corner, Fritz was now
as quiet as if he had been born a voiceless dingo.
This speechless trance seemed to have its influence upon the
awe-inspiring shadow outside the door: for, after giving utterance to
another specimen of shrill piping, it withdrew with as much silence as
if it had been but the shadow it appeared!
Caspar's curiosity had become too strong to be kept any longer under
the control of his fears. As soon as the strange intruder was seen
moving away from the hut, he stole forward to the entrance, and looked
out. Karl was not slow in following him; and Ossaroo also ventured
from his hiding-place.
A dark mass--in form like a quadruped, but one of gigantic size--could
be seen going off in the direction of the lake. It moved in majestic
silence; but it could have been no shadow, for on crossing the stream--
near the point where the latter debouched into the lake--the plashing of
its feet could be heard as it waded through the water, and eddies could
be seen upon the calm surface. A simple shadow would not have made
such a commotion as that?
"Sahibs!" said Ossaroo, in a tone of mysterious gravity, "he be one ob
two ting. He eider be de god Brahma, or--"
"Or what?" demanded Caspar.
"An ole rogue."
CHAPTER SIX.
A TALK ABOUT ELEPHANTS.
"An old rogue?" said Caspar, repeating the words of the shikaree.
"What do you mean by that, Ossy?"
"What you Feringhee, sahib, call rogue elephant."

"Oh! an elephant!" echoed Karl and Caspar--both considerably relieved
at this natural explanation of what had appeared so like a supernatural
apparition.
"Certainly the thing looked like one," continued Caspar.
"But how could an elephant enter this valley?"
Ossaroo could not answer this question. He was himself equally
puzzled by the appearance of the huge quadruped; and still rather
inclined to the belief that it was some of his trinity of Brahminee gods,
that had for the nonce assumed the elephantine form. For that reason he
made no attempt to explain the presence of such an animal in the
valley.
"It is possible for one to have come up here from the lower country,"
remarked Karl, reflectively.
"But how could he get into the valley?" again inquired Caspar.
"In the same way as we got in ourselves," was Karl's reply; "up the
glacier and through the gorge."
"But the crevasse that hinders us from getting out? You forget that,
brother? An elephant could no more cross it than he could fly; surely
not?"
"Surely not," rejoined Karl. "I did not say that he could have crossed
the crevasse."
"Oh! you mean that he may have come up here before we did?"
"Exactly so. If it be an