Редьярд Киплинг - Jungle Book / Книга джунглей

And at that last wild yell the whole line flung up their trunks till the tips touched their foreheads, and broke out into the full salute – the crashing trumpet-peal that only the Viceroy of India hears, the Salaamut of the Keddah.

But it was all for the sake of Little Toomai, who had seen what never man had seen before – the dance of the elephants at night and alone in the heart of the Garo hills!

It had been raining heavily for one whole month – raining on a camp of thirty thousand men and thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks, and mules all gathered together at a place called Rawal Pindi, to be reviewed by the Viceroy of India. He was receiving a visit from the Amir of Afghanistan – a wild king of a very wild country. The Amir had brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men and horses who had never seen a car or a locomotive before in their lives – savage men and savage horses from somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every night a mob of these horses would be sure to break their heel ropes and stampede up and down the camp through the mud in the dark, or the camels would break loose and run about and fall over the ropes of the tents, and you can imagine how pleasant that was for men trying to go to sleep. My tent lay far away from the camel lines, and I thought it was safe. But one night a man popped his head in and shouted, «Get out, quick! They’re coming! My tent’s gone!»

I knew who «they» were, so I put on my boots and waterproof and scuttled out into the slush. Little Vixen, my fox terrier, went out through the other side; and then there was a roaring and a grunting and bubbling, and I saw the tent cave in, as the pole snapped, and begin to dance about like a mad ghost. A camel had blundered into it, and wet and angry as I was, I could not help laughing. Then I ran on, because I did not know how many camels might have got loose, and before long I was out of sight of the camp, plowing my way through the mud.

At last I fell over the tail-end of a gun, and by that knew I was somewhere near the artillery lines where the cannon were stacked at night. As I did not want to plowter about any more in the drizzle and the dark, I put my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun, and made a sort of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found, and lay along the tail of another gun, wondering where Vixen had got to, and where I might be.

Just as I was getting ready to go to sleep I heard a jingle of harness and a grunt, and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears. He belonged to a screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle of the straps and rings and chains and things on his saddle pad. The screw-guns are tiny little cannon made in two pieces, that are screwed together when the time comes to use them. They are taken up mountains, anywhere that a mule can find a road, and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country.

Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed hen’s. Luckily, I knew enough of beast language – not wild-beast language, but camp-beast language, of course – from the natives to know what he was saying.

He must have been the one that flopped into my tent, for he called to the mule, «What shall I do? Where shall I go? I have fought with a white thing that waved, and it took a stick and hit me on the neck».

(That was my broken tent pole, and I was very glad to know it.) «Shall we run on?»

«Oh, it was you», said the mule, «you and your friends, that have been disturbing the camp? All right. You’ll be beaten for this in the morning. But I may as well give you something on account now».

I heard the harness jingle as the mule backed and caught the camel two kicks in the ribs that rang like a drum. «Another time», he said, «you’ll know better than to run through a mule battery at night, shouting “Thieves and fire!” Sit down, and keep your silly neck quiet».

The camel doubled up camel-fashion, like a two-foot rule, and sat down whimpering.

There was a regular beat of hooves in the darkness, and a big troop-horse cantered up as steadily as though he were on parade, jumped a gun tail, and landed close to the mule.

«It’s disgraceful», he said, blowing out his nostrils. «Those camels have racketed through our lines again – the third time this week. How’s a horse to keep his condition if he isn’t allowed to sleep? Who’s here?»

«I’m the breech-piece mule of number two gun of the First Screw Battery», said the mule, «and the other’s one of your friends. He’s waked me up too. Who are you?»

«Number Fifteen, E troop, Ninth Lancers – Dick Cunliffe’ horse. Stand over a little, there».

«Oh, beg your pardon», said the mule. «It’s too dark to see much. Aren’t these camels too sickening for anything? I walked out of my lines to get a little peace and quiet here».

«My lords», said the camel humbly, «we dreamed bad dreams in the night, and we were very much afraid. I am only a baggage camel of the 39th Native Infantry, and I am not as brave as you are, my lords».

«Then why didn’t you stay and carry baggage for the 39th Native Infantry, instead of running all round the camp?» said the mule.

«They were such very bad dreams», said the camel. «I am sorry. Listen! What is that? Shall we run on again?»

«Sit down», said the mule, «or you’ll snap your long stick-legs between the guns». He cocked one ear and listened. «Bullocks!» he said. «Gun bullocks. On my word, you and your friends have waked the camp very thoroughly. It takes a good deal of prodding to put up a gun bullock».