Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground , and he wished that he were back in the lines again . The grass began to get squashy , and Kala Nag 's feet sucked and squelched as he put them down , and the night mist at the bottom of the valley chilled Little Toomai . There was a splash and a trample , and the rush of running water , and Kala Nag strode through the bed of a river , feeling his way at each step . Above the noise of the water , as it swirled round the elephant 's legs , Little Toomai could hear more splashing and some trumpeting both upstream and down -- great grunts and angry snortings , and all the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling , wavy shadows . `` Ai ! '' he said , half aloud , his teeth chattering . `` The elephant-folk are out tonight . It is the dance , then ! '' Kala Nag swashed out of the water , blew his trunk clear , and began another climb . But this time he was not alone , and he had not to make his path . That was made already , six feet wide , in front of him , where the bent jungle-grass was trying to recover itself and stand up . Many elephants must have gone that way only a few minutes before . Little Toomai looked back , and behind him a great wild tusker with his little pig 's eyes glowing like hot coals was just lifting himself out of the misty river . Then the trees closed up again , and they went on and up , with trumpetings and crashings , and the sound of breaking branches on every side of them . At last Kala Nag stood still between two tree-trunks at the very top of the hill . They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular space of some three or four acres , and in all that space , as Little Toomai could see , the ground had been trampled down as hard as a brick floor . Some trees grew in the center of the clearing , but their bark was rubbed away , and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and polished in the patches of moonlight . There were creepers hanging from the upper branches , and the bells of the flowers of the creepers , great waxy white things like convolvuluses , hung down fast asleep . But within the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade of green -- nothing but the trampled earth . The moonlight showed it all iron gray , except where some elephants stood upon it , and their shadows were inky black .
Little Toomai looked , holding his breath , XXXXX his eyes starting out of his head , and as he looked , more and more and more elephants swung out into the open from between the tree trunks .
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