CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
SWALLOWED WHOLESALE.
Just while it was in the midst of its performance, keeping its _water-battery_ in full play, and apparently with malicious enjoyment, it was seen all at once to desist; and then its huge body commenced rocking from side to side, one shoulder now upheaving, then the other, while the long trunk was swept in circles through the air, at the same time emitting, instead of water, shrill sounds that proclaimed either pain or terror.
What could it mean?
The quadruped was evidently smitten with some sudden fear; but who and what was the enemy it dreaded?
So mentally inquired Karl and Caspar; but before either had time to shape his thought into an interrogative speech, the shikaree had answered it.
"He-ho!" he exclaimed.

"Goot! vair goot!--praise to the God of the Great Gangee! See, sahibs, the rogue he go down, down--he sinkee in de quicksand that near swalley Ossaroo; he-ho; sinkee! he sinkee!" Karl and Caspar easily comprehended the meaning of Ossaroo's broken but exultant speeches.

Bending their eyes on the brute below, and watching its movements, they at once perceived that the shikaree had spoken the truth.

The elephant was evidently sinking in the quicksand! They had noticed that when it first entered the bed of the stream, the water had not reached far above its knees.

Now it was up to its sides, and slowly but gradually rising higher.