Then came a herd of elephants, for each species seemed to have an
appointed time. The buffaloes emerged and filed away into the dark.
The elephants plunged into the water, squealing, making sport,
squirting water over their backs, and rolling, head under; and they
buffeted one another amiably, and there was a baby who seemed to get in
everybody's way and the grown-ups treated him shabbily. By and by
they, too, trooped off. Then came wild pigs and furtive antelopes and
foolish, chattering apes.
At last the truce water became deserted and Kathlyn lay down again,
only to be surprised by a huge ape who stuck his head up over the edge
of the platform. The surprise was mutual. Kathlyn pushed the idol
toward him. The splash of it in the water scared off the unwelcome
guest, and then Kathlyn lay down and slept.
A day or so later Bruce arrived at the temple. Day after day he had
hung to the trail, picking it up here and losing it there. He found
Rajah, the elephant, the howdah gone, and only the ornamental headpiece
discovered to Bruce that he had found his rogue. Rajah was docile
enough; he had been domesticated so long that his freedom rather irked
him.
Bruce elicited from the mourning holy men the amazing adventure in all
its details. Kathlyn had disappeared in the jungle and not even the
tried hunters could find her. She was lost. Bruce, though in his
heart of hearts he believed her dead, took up the trail again. But
many weary weeks were to pass ere he learned that she lived.
He shook his fist toward Allaha. "Oh, Durga Ram, one of these fine
days you and I shall square accounts!"
* * * * * * Kathlyn had just completed herself a dress of grass. Three years
before she had learned the trick from the natives in Hawaii. The many
days of hardship had made her thinner, but never had she been so hardy,
so clear eyed, so quick and lithe in her actions. She had lived
precariously, stealing her food at dusk from the tents of the ryots;
raw vegetables, plantains, mangoes. Sometimes she recited verses in
order that she might break the oppressive silence which always
surrounded her.
She kept carefully out of the way of all human beings, so she had lost
all hope of succor from the brown people, who had become so hateful to
her as the scavengers of the jungle. There was something to admire in
the tiger, the leopard, the wild elephant; but she placed all natives
(perhaps wrongly) in a class with the unclean jackals and hyenas.
Tanned deeply by wind and sun, Kathlyn was darker than many a native
woman. Often she thought of Bruce, but hope of his finding her had
long since died within her. Every night when she climbed to her
platform she vowed she would start south the next morning; south,
toward the land where there were white people; but each morning found
her hesitant.