Wicked one ! Worthless son ! Go and wash Kala Nag and attend to his ears , and see that there are no thorns in his feet . Or else Petersen Sahib will surely catch thee and make thee a wild hunter -- a follower of elephant 's foot tracks , a jungle bear . Bah ! Shame ! Go ! '' Little Toomai went off without saying a word , but he told Kala Nag all his grievances while he was examining his feet . `` No matter , '' said Little Toomai , turning up the fringe of Kala Nag 's huge right ear . `` They have said my name to Petersen Sahib , and perhaps -- and perhaps -- and perhaps -- who knows ? Hai ! That is a big thorn that I have pulled out ! '' The next few days were spent in getting the elephants together , in walking the newly caught wild elephants up and down between a couple of tame ones to prevent them giving too much trouble on the downward march to the plains , and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and things that had been worn out or lost in the forest . Petersen Sahib came in on his clever she-elephant Pudmini ; he had been paying off other camps among the hills , for the season was coming to an end , and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree , to pay the drivers their wages . As each man was paid he went back to his elephant , and joined the line that stood ready to start . The catchers , and hunters , and beaters , the men of the regular Keddah , who stayed in the jungle year in and year out , sat on the backs of the elephants that belonged to Petersen Sahib 's permanent force , or leaned against the trees with their guns across their arms , and made fun of the drivers who were going away , and laughed when the newly caught elephants broke the line and ran about . Big Toomai went up to the clerk with Little Toomai behind him , and Machua Appa , the head tracker , said in an undertone to a friend of his , `` There goes one piece of good elephant stuff at least . 'T is a pity to send that young jungle-cock to molt in the plains . '' Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him , as a man must have who listens to the most silent of all living things -- the wild elephant . He turned where he was lying all along on Pudmini 's back and said , `` What is that ?
I did not know XXXXX a man among the plains-drivers who had wit enough to rope even a dead elephant . ''
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