13 Tiger Adventure by Willard Price Read Free Book Online

mahout on its back. The job of the tame elephants was to quiet the wild ones and give them their first training.
    Every newcomer was joined by two tame elephants, one on either side of him. They stuck so close to him that he had to stop roistering around wildly and begin to realise that, although he was a captive, life was not going to be so bad after all. A few days in the corral with his tame companions would calm him down. Then he would not be too excited when a mahout got on his back and continued his training. If the mahouts were kind it did not take more than a few days before the strangers would feel less strange and could start work in the many timber-yards.
    In the timber-yard they would quickly pick up the twenty-seven words that every logging elephant is supposed to learn. Each word called for a different action. Of course the elephants could not speak the words, but they could hear them, and with a little experience they could do exactly what the mahouts wanted them to do. It must always be the same word for the same action. If a different word were used, the animals would not understand.
    Arriving home from the round-up, Hal was astonished to see a big Himalayan bear neatly caged.
    ‘How did you do that?’
    Roger began to answer but Vic cut him off. ‘It was a good deal of work,’ said Vic, ‘and pretty dangerous. But I got him at last. That will be fifty dollars.’
    Hal looked at Roger. Roger winked, but said nothing. Hal guessed it was mostly Roger’s work rather than Vic’s. But since Vic had not caught anything yet and might be getting discouraged, Hal gave him the money.
    From that time on Vic took everyone to see the bear and told them how brave he had been to catch and cage such a monster.
    Roger had taken the elephant back to the round-up. He noticed a wild elephant that was dancing about and trumpeting furiously. A tame elephant was on one side, but there should have been one on the other side. The temporary mahout, Roger Hunt, brought his elephant up where it was needed, and two tame animals pressed closely against the troublemaker to calm him down.
    An hour later Hal showed up. ‘You and your elephant seem to be very fond of each other.’ Hal said.
    ‘We are.’ said Roger, ‘and I hate to give him up.’
    ‘You don’t need to. He’s your elephant. At least until we ship him home to Dad.’
    ‘My elephant? But he isn’t mine.’
    ‘I’ve just been to the hospital to see the mahout.’ Hal said. ‘He gave me the name of the owner. I went to him and bought the elephant. You remember Dad wanted an Indian elephant. We couldn’t get a better one than this. So, until we go home, he’s yours.’
    ‘But he must have cost you a mint of money.’
    ‘Not so much. And Dad will be able to get a good price for him.’
    Roger was choked up. ‘Hal.’ he managed to say, ‘you’re a good guy. This critter put you in a mudhole. That’s enough to make a fellow mad. But you don’t get mad. Instead, you do this nice thing.’
    ‘Save your breath.’ said Hal, embarrassed. He called to a mahout who happened to be free. ‘Want to take over? We’re going home.’
    The exchange was made. Hal climbed the log fence and perched on their elephant behind his brother. Home they went AH three of them, counting the elephant, were very well satisfied. Big Fella, as they called him, was put into a cage.
    ‘You’ll have to get busy and find some fodder for him.’ Hal said. ‘Big Fella will eat six hundred pounds a day!’

Chapter 9
The Boy and the Beast
    The terrible gaur. It rhymes with power and it rhymes with sour.
    Both words describe him well. He had more power than any other member of the wild ox family. And he was as sour as vinegar, grumpy, crusty, cranky, cross and savage.
    He stood seven feet high, his two upturned horns were each three feet long, his ears were large, his food was grass, bamboo shoots, twigs and leaves of various trees and bushes.
    A headman told the boys, ‘When the gaur is