I thought that he would never come down, but he did at last with an awesome thud.

Jana went to him and very gently, now that he was dead, picked him up in his trunk.

I prayed that he might carry him away to some hiding-place and leave me in peace.

But not so.

With slow and stately strides, rocking the deceased Marut up and down in his trunk, as a nurse might rock a baby, he marched on to the very stone where I lay, behind which I suppose he had seen or smelt me all the time.
For quite a long while, it seemed more than a century, he stood over me, studying me as though I interested him very much, the water of the lake trickling in a refreshing stream from his great ears on to my back.