As Kala Nag sat down , he slid off his neck in a dead faint . But , since native children have no nerves worth speaking of , in two hours he was lying very contentedly in Petersen Sahib 's hammock with Petersen Sahib 's shooting-coat under his head , and a glass of warm milk , a little brandy , with a dash of quinine , inside of him , and while the old hairy , scarred hunters of the jungles sat three deep before him , looking at him as though he were a spirit , he told his tale in short words , as a child will , and wound up with : `` Now , if I lie in one word , send men to see , and they will find that the elephant folk have trampled down more room in their dance-room , and they will find ten and ten , and many times ten , tracks leading to that dance-room . They made more room with their feet . I have seen it . Kala Nag took me , and I saw . Also Kala Nag is very leg-weary ! '' Little Toomai lay back and slept all through the long afternoon and into the twilight , and while he slept Petersen Sahib and Machua Appa followed the track of the two elephants for fifteen miles across the hills . Petersen Sahib had spent eighteen years in catching elephants , and he had only once before found such a dance-place . Machua Appa had no need to look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there , or to scratch with his toe in the packed , rammed earth . `` The child speaks truth , '' said he . `` All this was done last night , and I have counted seventy tracks crossing the river . See , Sahib , where Pudmini 's leg-iron cut the bark of that tree ! Yes ; she was there too . '' They looked at one another and up and down , and they wondered . For the ways of elephants are beyond the wit of any man , black or white , to fathom . `` Forty years and five , '' said Machua Appa , `` have I followed my lord , the elephant , but never have I heard that any child of man had seen what this child has seen . By all the Gods of the Hills , it is -- what can we say ? '' and he shook his head . When they got back to camp it was time for the evening meal . Petersen Sahib ate alone in his tent , but he gave orders that the camp should have two sheep and some fowls , as well as a double ration of flour and rice and salt , for he knew that there would be a feast .
Big Toomai had come up hotfoot from the XXXXX in the plains to search for his son and his elephant , and now that he had found them he looked at them as though he were afraid of them both .
camp elephant hammock lord meal men orders speaking tent time