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981
Little
Toomai
looked
,
holding
his
breath
,
with
his
eyes
starting
out
of
his
head
,
and
as
he
looked
,
more
and
more
and
more
elephants
swung
out
into
the
open
from
between
the
tree
trunks
.
Little
Toomai
could
only
count
up
to
ten
,
and
he
counted
again
and
again
on
his
fingers
till
he
lost
count
of
the
tens
,
and
his
head
began
to
swim
.
Outside
the
clearing
he
could
hear
them
crashing
in
the
undergrowth
as
they
worked
their
way
up
the
hillside
,
but
as
soon
as
they
were
within
the
circle
of
the
tree
trunks
they
moved
like
ghosts
.
982
There
were
white-tusked
wild
males
,
with
fallen
leaves
and
nuts
and
twigs
lying
in
the
wrinkles
of
their
necks
and
the
folds
of
their
ears
;
fat
,
slow-footed
she-elephants
,
with
restless
,
little
pinky
black
calves
only
three
or
four
feet
high
running
under
their
stomachs
;
young
elephants
with
their
tusks
just
beginning
to
show
,
and
very
proud
of
them
;
lanky
,
scraggy
old-maid
elephants
,
with
their
hollow
anxious
faces
,
and
trunks
like
rough
bark
;
savage
old
bull
elephants
,
scarred
from
shoulder
to
flank
with
great
weals
and
cuts
of
bygone
fights
,
and
the
caked
dirt
of
their
solitary
mud
baths
dropping
from
their
shoulders
;
and
there
was
one
with
a
broken
tusk
and
the
marks
of
the
full-stroke
,
the
terrible
drawing
scrape
,
of
a
tiger
's
claws
on
his
side
.
983
They
were
standing
head
to
head
,
or
walking
to
and
fro
across
the
ground
in
couples
,
or
rocking
and
swaying
all
by
themselves
--
scores
and
scores
of
elephants
.
Отключить рекламу
984
Toomai
knew
that
so
long
as
he
lay
still
on
Kala
Nag
's
neck
nothing
would
happen
to
him
,
for
even
in
the
rush
and
scramble
of
a
Keddah
drive
a
wild
elephant
does
not
reach
up
with
his
trunk
and
drag
a
man
off
the
neck
of
a
tame
elephant
.
And
these
elephants
were
not
thinking
of
men
that
night
.
Once
they
started
and
put
their
ears
forward
when
they
heard
the
chinking
of
a
leg
iron
in
the
forest
,
but
it
was
Pudmini
,
Petersen
Sahib
's
pet
elephant
,
her
chain
snapped
short
off
,
grunting
,
snuffling
up
the
hillside
.
She
must
have
broken
her
pickets
and
come
straight
from
Petersen
Sahib
's
camp
;
and
Little
Toomai
saw
another
elephant
,
one
that
he
did
not
know
,
with
deep
rope
galls
on
his
back
and
breast
.
He
,
too
,
must
have
run
away
from
some
camp
in
the
hills
about
.
985
At
last
there
was
no
sound
of
any
more
elephants
moving
in
the
forest
,
and
Kala
Nag
rolled
out
from
his
station
between
the
trees
and
went
into
the
middle
of
the
crowd
,
clucking
and
gurgling
,
and
all
the
elephants
began
to
talk
in
their
own
tongue
,
and
to
move
about
.
986
Still
lying
down
,
Little
Toomai
looked
down
upon
scores
and
scores
of
broad
backs
,
and
wagging
ears
,
and
tossing
trunks
,
and
little
rolling
eyes
.
He
heard
the
click
of
tusks
as
they
crossed
other
tusks
by
accident
,
and
the
dry
rustle
of
trunks
twined
together
,
and
the
chafing
of
enormous
sides
and
shoulders
in
the
crowd
,
and
the
incessant
flick
and
hissh
of
the
great
tails
.
Then
a
cloud
came
over
the
moon
,
and
he
sat
in
black
darkness
.
But
the
quiet
,
steady
hustling
and
pushing
and
gurgling
went
on
just
the
same
.
987
He
knew
that
there
were
elephants
all
round
Kala
Nag
,
and
that
there
was
no
chance
of
backing
him
out
of
the
assembly
;
so
he
set
his
teeth
and
shivered
.
In
a
Keddah
at
least
there
was
torchlight
and
shouting
,
but
here
he
was
all
alone
in
the
dark
,
and
once
a
trunk
came
up
and
touched
him
on
the
knee
.
Отключить рекламу
988
Then
an
elephant
trumpeted
,
and
they
all
took
it
up
for
five
or
ten
terrible
seconds
.
The
dew
from
the
trees
above
spattered
down
like
rain
on
the
unseen
backs
,
and
a
dull
booming
noise
began
,
not
very
loud
at
first
,
and
Little
Toomai
could
not
tell
what
it
was
.
But
it
grew
and
grew
,
and
Kala
Nag
lifted
up
one
forefoot
and
then
the
other
,
and
brought
them
down
on
the
ground
--
one-two
,
one-two
,
as
steadily
as
trip-hammers
.
The
elephants
were
stamping
all
together
now
,
and
it
sounded
like
a
war
drum
beaten
at
the
mouth
of
a
cave
.
The
dew
fell
from
the
trees
till
there
was
no
more
left
to
fall
,
and
the
booming
went
on
,
and
the
ground
rocked
and
shivered
,
and
Little
Toomai
put
his
hands
up
to
his
ears
to
shut
out
the
sound
.
But
it
was
all
one
gigantic
jar
that
ran
through
him
--
this
stamp
of
hundreds
of
heavy
feet
on
the
raw
earth
.
Once
or
twice
he
could
feel
Kala
Nag
and
all
the
others
surge
forward
a
few
strides
,
and
the
thumping
would
change
to
the
crushing
sound
of
juicy
green
things
being
bruised
,
but
in
a
minute
or
two
the
boom
of
feet
on
hard
earth
began
again
.
A
tree
was
creaking
and
groaning
somewhere
near
him
.
He
put
out
his
arm
and
felt
the
bark
,
but
Kala
Nag
moved
forward
,
still
tramping
,
and
he
could
not
tell
where
he
was
in
the
clearing
.
989
There
was
no
sound
from
the
elephants
,
except
once
,
when
two
or
three
little
calves
squeaked
together
.
Then
he
heard
a
thump
and
a
shuffle
,
and
the
booming
went
on
.
It
must
have
lasted
fully
two
hours
,
and
Little
Toomai
ached
in
every
nerve
,
but
he
knew
by
the
smell
of
the
night
air
that
the
dawn
was
coming
.
990
The
morning
broke
in
one
sheet
of
pale
yellow
behind
the
green
hills
,
and
the
booming
stopped
with
the
first
ray
,
as
though
the
light
had
been
an
order
.
Before
Little
Toomai
had
got
the
ringing
out
of
his
head
,
before
even
he
had
shifted
his
position
,
there
was
not
an
elephant
in
sight
except
Kala
Nag
,
Pudmini
,
and
the
elephant
with
the
rope-galls
,
and
there
was
neither
sign
nor
rustle
nor
whisper
down
the
hillsides
to
show
where
the
others
had
gone
.