‘Got to be Wonderboy,’ said Earp.
‘Is he nuts?’
‘He’s scared. Yell over there and tell him to shut up.’
‘Uh-uh. If the kid answers, he’ll pinpoint himself.’
‘The tiger isn’t after him.’
‘We don’t know what that tiger’s thinking.’
‘Something wrong?’ Riker called out.
Early held his hand up and put his fingers to his lips. He pointed to Riker and then swept his hand across the elephant grass and the low reeds toward the wide strip of bamboo. He urged his own beast straight ahead, peering through his glasses in the general direction of the sound he had heard.
‘Get ready,’ he said softly to Earp. We may have a situation on our hands.’
Hatcher was moving quickly down the edge of the bamboo strip toward Wonderboy when he heard the whistle. The noise men stopped beating their pans. He stopped and waited for a moment. It got deathly still.
Then he, too, heard the singing. Wonderboy was closer than he thought. And lie was somewhere in the bamboo thicket, a dangerous place to be. Hatcher doubled his pace, moving down the outer edge of the bamboo thicket until he could hear Wonderboy’s soft song somewhere nearby. He e:ntered the thicket, moving as quietly as he could toward the voice. The tall stalks of stiff bamboo clattered as he made his way through them toward Wonderboy.
Old Scar, too, was startled by the whistle. Then the noise stopped and the silence confused him. He stopped and listened, heard the elephants pulling up grass.
He heard the sound in front of him:
And he heard someone coming through the grass behind him. He waited, his muscles tightening. The elephants started moving again; he increased his pace.
Old Scar was spooked. He decided to go through the bamboo to the open field beyond and make a dash for it. His instincts told him to move as quietly as possible until he was in the open. There was activity all around now. Enemies were closing in on him.
He crept forward again, out of the tall elephant grass into the short stuff. Now he really hugged the ground, moving one paw in front of the other, stealthily, cautiously, slowly crawling toward the bamboo, moving away from whoever was coming up in the rear, moving away from the elephants, his good eye jumping nervously, checking the route as he crept toward the strange sound.
Early stopped his elephant again and scanned the grass with his binoculars. He stopped, freezing the glasses on one spot.
‘Something?’ Earp whispered.
‘Not sure .
Early watched the tall grass swaying in the wind. Then he saw one short stretch moving against the wind, almost imperceptibly, like a ripple in the ocean. The movement stopped. Then it moved again. Another four or five feet and stopped again.
‘Jesus,’ Early breathed, ‘there it is.’
‘Where?’ Earp asked.
‘There, moving toward the bamboo in the short grass. Once it gets near the bamboo, if it sees anything it’ll probably charge.’
Early handed the binoculars to Earp and directed the elephant toward the movement. The big animal lumbered forward as Earp peered nervously through the glasses.
‘I don’t see it,’ Earp said.
‘Right in front of us, about a hundred yards. Watch the buffalo grass,’ Earp said.
Then Earp saw the ripple, the slight movement through the short reed-like grass, then it stopped again.
‘Jesus, you’re right,’ Earp said.
‘Where the
The elephant moved quickly toward the thicket.
‘Can’t we start the racket again, scare it off?’ asked Earp.
‘No, none of that,’ Early snapped. ‘That cat’s crazy. That cat’s a Mexican jumping bean. We shake him up now, he might just charge out of pure cussedness.’
Early’s voice was clear and clean: ‘Wonderboy, stop singing. Back out of that bamboo strip real slow. Don’t answer me, just do it. Now!’
‘Shit,’ Hatcher said, hearing Early’s caution. But he didn’t stop. He didn’t have time to stop. He kept moving ahead.
Old Scar, too, heard the man yell and stopped. Then he saw movement a few yards away. His lips peeled back from his fangs and his nostrils sniffed the air. The noise stopped. He kept moving forward.
Through his good eye he saw movement in the bamboo. It was moving away from him and he followed
it. Behind him the elephants were picking up their pace. The ground trembled as they stomped through the tall grass. Old Scar moved faster, creeping toward the tall, hard shafts and the open fields on the other side.
