see."

He handed the man the antiseptic and swabs. Then he turned to the elephant
and patted it.

"Good-bye, Badshah, old boy," he said. "I don't think that Ramnath will
ill-treat you."

The huge beast seemed to understand him and again touched him with the tip
of its trunk.

"Badshah knows Your Honour," said the Hindu. "He will regard you always now
as his _ma-bap_ (mother and father)."

Dermot smiled at this very usual vernacular expression. He was accustomed
to being called it by his sepoys; but he was amused at being regarded as
the combined parents of so large an offspring.

"Badshah has never let a white man approach him before today, _Huzoor_,"
continued Ramnath. "He has always been afraid of the sahibs. But he sees
you are his friend. _Salaam kuro_, Badshah!"

And the elephant raised his trunk vertically in the air and trumpeted the
_Salaamut_ or royal salute that he had been taught to make. Then, at
Ramnath's signal, he lowered his trunk and crooked it. The man put his bare
foot on it, at the same time seizing one of the great ears. Then Badshah
lifted him up with the trunk until he could get on to the head into
position astride the neck. Then the new _mahout_, salaaming again to the
officer, started his huge charge off, and the elephant lumbered away with
swaying stride to its _peelkhana_, or stable, two thousand feet below in