Free 07 Elephant Adventure by Willard Price

stink of humans.’
    ‘But I only petted him for a minute or two.’
    ‘That’s enough. Elephants have a terrifically keen sense of smell. They can scent a human a mile away, if the wind is right.’ ‘Seems to me,’ Roger grumbled, ‘you could have told
    me all this before I touched the baby.’ ‘I didn’t tell you because I thought you were doing
    just the right thing. True, the herd won’t take the baby back. But we’ll take it. Or, rather, you will. You have just become a mother. And I can tell you it’s no easy job you’ve picked for yourself - playing mama and nurse to a baby ten times your size.’ ‘I don’t think I’ll have to,’ Roger said. ‘He’s not coming back. He’s forgotten that I exist’ So it seemed. The baby stood apart, facing away from the men and still making plaintive little questioning sounds as if begging the herd to have a heart and take him back.
    Then he suddenly whirled about, trumpeted loudly, charged through the line of men and came to a halt beside Roger.
    ‘There you are,’ Hal said. ‘Now he’s really adopted you.’

Chapter 13
The trap
    ‘Come Quick. We catch big one.’
    It was Chief Abu speaking. Hal shook his head. He had almost given up hope. Everything had gone wrong. Yesterday the elephant had escaped, taking most of the chain with him. Today - he looked at the mournful pile of bones - they had been unable to take their quarry alive. He could almost agree with Roger - the Mountains of the Moon had them jinxed.
    Without much enthusiasm, he followed Abu into the woods. They pushed past ferns thirty feet high with leaves ten to twelve feet long. Heather, lobelias, begonias, pansies, towered around them. Above them rose gigantic trees, and beautiful black-and-white colobus monkeys looked down from the high branches. Far away there was a sound like a sonic boom - it came from the great drum-like chest of a big gorilla.
    They came out of the brush on to a narrow path.
    ‘Elephant trail/ Abu said. ‘Every day many elephants come here. We catch one - no?’
    Hal felt like repeating the ‘No.’ But he only nodded gloomily.
    A number of pygmies were hard at work. Some of Hal’s men were helping them. They had dug a hole a foot deep in the path. It was a little larger than the forefoot of an elephant Now they were laying a loop of rope around
    the edge of the hole. The other end of the rope was tied round a big log.
    Hal had never seen a rope like this one. It was as heavy as the hawser of an ocean liner, perhaps heavier. It was a good five inches in diameter. Where did the pygmies ever get such a rope? He asked Abu.
    ‘It is made of many hides,’ Abu said. The hides of giraffes, antelopes, hartebeest, rhino, eland, zebra, and buffalo. Our women make it. They scrape the skins and pound them with clubs. They pound them for many weeks. Then they twist them together to make this rope.’
    ‘But is it as good as a chain?’
    ‘It is better. It will stretch - a chain will not The elephant - he comes. He steps in the hole. When he takes up his foot, the loop is around his ankle. It makes tight. He tries to go on, but the rope is tied to this log. He pulls hard. The rope stretches like what-you-call elastic. It does not break like chain. When he stops pulling to rest, it goes back.’
    ‘Then what happens?’
    ‘He pulls again - harder. So hard, he drags the log behind him.’
    ‘Why don’t you tie the rope to a big tree instead of a log? He couldn’t drag that away.’
    ‘Then he would break the rope - like chain. But the log, it moves, so the strain on the rope is not too great You see? We never forget - elephant is king. He is strongest animal in whole world. You do not say no to king, or elephant You say a little no, a little yes. If you do not let him win a little, he win too much. So the elephant wins a little - he goes on along path. He pulls the log. But it is very hard work. He get very tired. He stop. We catch him.’
    ‘I’ll believe it when I see