CHAPTER SIX.
A TALK ABOUT ELEPHANTS.
"An old rogue ?" said Caspar, repeating the words of the shikaree.

"What do you mean by that, Ossy ?" "What you Feringhee, sahib, call _rogue_ elephant." "Oh! an elephant!" echoed Karl and Caspar--both considerably relieved at this natural explanation of what had appeared so like a supernatural apparition.
"Certainly the thing looked like one," continued Caspar.
"But how could an elephant enter this valley ?" Ossaroo could not answer this question.

He was himself equally puzzled by the appearance of the huge quadruped; and still rather inclined to the belief that it was some of his trinity of Brahminee gods, that had for the nonce assumed the elephantine form.

For that reason he made no attempt to explain the presence of such an animal in the valley.
"It is possible for one to have come up here from the lower country," remarked Karl, reflectively.
"But how could he get into the valley ?" again inquired Caspar.
"In the same way as we got in ourselves," was Karl's reply; "up the glacier and through the gorge." "But the crevasse that hinders us from getting out?
You forget that, brother?
An elephant could no more cross it than he could fly; surely not ?" "Surely not," rejoined Karl.

"I did not say that he could have crossed the crevasse." "Oh! you mean that he may have come up here before we did ?" "Exactly so.