The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 14 December 1911, Page 2507

The Storyteller

THE TOY AND THE PROPHET From out the chaos of muddy waggons, shouting circus-hands, and lathered, straining mules, came Killeen’s voice, high-pitched and angry. There was an electric crackle in it as if the lightning-flash had parted the lowering clouds that overhung the city, Grayson !’ Grayson lifted his head with a dull start. His eyes, under their heavy black brows, seemed to reach across the mud-coated field and clinch hard with the chief’s. There was a light of sullen defiance in them, discernible even at that distance, which goaded Killeen to instant fury. 1 Can’t you see you’re wanted, man!’ he bellowed. ‘ Bring that elephant over here, and push us out of this mud-hole !’

Grayson’s jaws set, and for a moment he did not move. Then he buttoned his coat tightly over his broad chest, and turned quickly to the big elephant standing at his side. With a firm but gentle hand on the animal’s trunk, he led him through the sand and water to the imbedded waggon. ‘ Put him at it here!’ growled Killeen, jerking his muddied sleeve away from the waggon-axle. The man did not once raise his eyes to the thin, arrogant figure of the manager towering above him. He guided the half-blind elephant’s trunk to the designated place and, with a low-spoken word or two of encouragement, struck the animal with the prod in his hand. Rajah’s mammoth head raised, and the imprisoned wheel came slowly up out of the ooze. ‘That'll do,’ said the manager. And next time don’t be so delicate with your good-for-nothing beast'!’ he added. t

The man shut his teeth without retort. Killeen had remounted his horse, and the circus moved slowly towards the smoke-curtained city. Grayson splashed doggedly along beside the elephant, his coarse clothing mud-spattered even up to the battered slouch hat that he wore. Killeen’s treatment meant nothing to him. He had ceased even to curse with his fellow-toilers the disheartening combination of foul weather and the lack of money which was bringing ruin upon the show. It was with the crippled, half-blind elephant, ploughing painfully on through the mud, that the hopes and fears of Grayson rested.

The accident had occurred on the night, weeks before, when the circus-cars, in a nasty fog, had crashed into a stationary engine. Grayson thrown from his berth by the shock, had rushed to the front of the train where the overturned and broken animalcar was slowly beginning to burn in the debris. At the risk of his life, amidst the chaos of panic-stricken animals, he had worked like a maniac to save what he could.

It was Rajah he had assisted last —Rajah, blinded by hot steam and cinders, with a big, ironed timber across him that bit half a foot into the flesh of one leg. Nursed and watched over by Grayson, however, the elephant had lived but there was no hope that he would ever again take his old place in the ring. Half-blind, and limping painfully on the disabled leg, his active career was over.

But the loyalty of his keeper never faltered. Rather, it began to grow and ripen from that day forth. Grayson’s trainership in years numbered just those that had slipped by since, as a lad of twenty-one, he had entered into the work. Rajah had come to him last, and it was with Rajah that he had shared fortune and misfortune during these latter seasons. In many ways, and as far as animal can go with human, the two had .nothing left to them but each other. It had been more of a partnership than the man had realised, until the accident struck its crushing blow at Rajah’s usefulness. Yet even now, as he led the elephant across the fields to the * lot,’ with his watchful, faithful eyes upon the animal’s progress, there was no thought of desertion in Grayson’s heart.

Once, as the trainer raised his eyes to study the outline of the city, he saw that the assistant-manager, Carr, in boots and ulster, was galloping swiftly towards them. He reached Killeen, and both men slackened their pace until they were within easy hearing of Grayson and his charge. ‘ They’ve been here—Tuesday,’ Carr was saying savagely. Cleaned out the whole town ‘Hang them!’ Killeen hurled back. His face, as Grayson beheld it for an instant, was white with mingled rage and defeat. Vaguely, Grayson appreciated that some rival show had slipped in before them. He knew well enough what that meant. And, as if to cast a final damper on the gloomy, prospect ahead, the rain began once more to pour from the pent-up heavens. For just a moment, even Grayson pitied the despairing figure of the manager as he whipped up the collar of his coat. ‘We’re beaten, Carr —that and this weather!’ Killeen’s voice was almost a whine. ‘ I’ll turn them back. We might as well sulk in the cars.’ He dug his heels into his horse, but Carr caught him doggedly by the coat. t ‘What’s the use?’ he demanded. ‘They’ve got the.canvas up. Give the animals a chance to stretch themselves. ; You might as well. As for ’ Their voices were lost to Grayson as they spurred a little ahead. The next he heard was from Killeen. ‘ Salaries ! Salaries ! Man, do you know I’ve little enough over the money to haul us out of here ? We’re done if the sun don’t shine to-morrow !’ So it was that bad, Grayson reflected. He had known all along that they were scarcely making expenses. It was the old story of a poor outfit and worse luck. : Salaries were already weeks behind. But now —to be stranded without a dollar, to have cast upon him the crippled elephant, with no time perhaps no chance, to hunt a new place. '' The rain , became a heavy mist, as if the skies were an immense, minutely-fine sieve under a deluge. They were nearing the wet canvases when a little girl, wrapped in a pinned-up raincoat, ran out across the sodden field towards the men on horseback. It was Mary, the sweet, sunny-eyed, lisping little seven-year-old daughter of the manager; and, in her eagerness to reach her father, she darted through the long circus cavalcade to him, crossing heedlessly in front of the elephant and sinking ankle-deep in the thick mud directly in Rajah’s path. Grayson’s hand shot out to guide the elephant aside, but he was an instant too late. Rajah, his filmcovered eyes catching sight of the obstacle in his path, had lifted her gently in his trunk and swung her clear of his lumbering feet. N Killeen, hearing her little, startled cry, glanced up in time to comprehend the situation. ‘Grayson!’ he screamed. ‘Grayson!’ The trainer struck the elephant sharply with his prod, but Rajah had already deposited the tiny figure, unhurt, and was plodding laboriously on. Killeen rode furiously up. Grayson, ‘l’ve had enough of you and that worthless beast!’ he stormed. All the bitterness 7 generated by the past weeks’ disappointments, was loosened in his voice. ‘ You can clear out to-morrow—you and that elephant! Understand ? I don’t want to see you about after to-morrow night.’ Grayson lifted his dull, lethargic face. Now that the worst had come, he thought little of defence. * Rajah didn’t mean to hurt her,’ he said dumbly. ‘We won’t argue that, I’ve done with you both. You can clear out!’

The trainer’s muscles tightened tensely under his rough clothing. ‘ You’ll give us our back pay?’ he demanded doggedly, though he knew already the futility of asking. The manager’s eyes blazed. ‘Pay?’ he bellowed. ‘ You’re lucky to get another meal for yourself and that hulk of worthless flesh.’

Grayson looked at him unflinchingly. ‘ D’you know, Killeen, that I ain’t got a dollar in the world? I needed that money long before this. If you turn we an’ Rajah out without a ’

‘ I can’t help it! I can’t help it! Heavens, man, sell him, and get him off your hands. He’s useless. He’s going blind. He’ll be dangerous soon. You can’t take care of him.’ Killeen’s sullen tone swelled suddenly with the flood of 'his recent adversities. ‘You’ll have to get out, anyway. I don’t want to see you about this show after to-night!’ The hot words trembling on Grayson’s lips seemed quenched by some inner struggle, already ended, in the man’s soul. He turned his back on the manager, and strode uncaringly on. The fight was over and done with—the fight that he and Rajah had waged together against the inevitable. He knew now that it had been over and done with when, all too late, he had found the elephant in that hissing burning wreck of the menagerie-car. All had been over as far as Killeen, or any other manager, was concerned, when Rajah’s eyes began slowly to dim and weaken under the film whose presence and steady growth had meant surrender. Rajah had lost his own !

In the big, empty space in the far corner of the menagerie tent, Grayson himself drove the stake and buckled the chain about Rajah’s sound hind foot. Despite the constant suffering and pain the accident had entailed, the elephant never made protest to the trainer’s ministrations, though the other keeper’s kept a respectful distance. The rain was coming down steadily now. The canvases sagged more and more soddenly. Water trickled through tiny, unseen holes, and enveloped the centre poles in a fine, drifting spray. Most of the circus hands had straggled back to the cars. There would be no afternoon performance. A group of keepers, huddled on a blanket in the driest part of the tent, cursed the weather and their luck. Grayson sat apart from them, over by the elephant. He did not seem to notice the wet. One after another, they came to him making excusescatarrh, sore-throat, rheumatism—all with the. half-apologetic purpose of getting back to the cars. Yes, he would stay and keep an eye on things, he told them. They wondered at his dumb; apathetic nod, and went their way. Grayson sat quietly on an old chest after they had gone, his head buried in his hard, horny hands, thinking. There seemed nothing to do —nothing to plan for. Ever since he could remember, he had known only this life. Even now, he might have shifted for himself in some other work—returned, perhaps, to the place he had filled in animal-training years —but for the helpless elephant, which in some mysterious manner, of which his blunt circus discipline could tell him little, he had come to love. After awhile, he lifted his eyes with a sudden start of recollection. The elephant’s great trunk was waving more and more restlessly back and forth. Grayson got slowly to his feet. ‘ I was thinkin’ so hard about what was goin’ to become of us, Rajah, that I clean forgot you’d been waiting this long time for your dinner! ’ He hurried to the place where the elephant’s allowance was usually dumped. The wind was rising outside, and the rain dashed against the bellying canvas like blows from a rope strand. He took back all that remained of a bale of hay, and began to pitch it out within reach of the waving trunk. ‘ I wouldn’t try to save my appetite, Rajah,’ he said grimly. f ßy all signs, your next meal is goin’ to be slimmer’n this.’ i

He watched the elephant quickly gather up the food, and now and then, when the blinded eyes of the animal missed a wisp of hay he would push it up to him with something that was very near to tears in his own.

Poor old fellow!’ he muttered softly. ‘I don’t know what’s goin’ to become of us to-morrow. If Killeen had given us a chance to get another placebut you wouldn’t expect that of him! Accordin’ to his notion, I ought to sell you an’ let you go anywhere, so long as I get rid of you. But,’ Grayson reached out once more and patted the busy trunk, ‘ you stood by me, old fellow, an’ now I’m goin' to stand by you. That’s fair, ain’t it?’

As if in answer to the trainer’s half question, half entreaty, Rajah slipped his trunk about him and playfully lifted him a little way from the ground. Grayson laughed as he was set down again. You understand some things more than most people!’ he ’declared, starting down the semi-circular row of cages on a tour of inspection. He came back after a moment turning up the collar of his coat and flattening the brim of his hat over his eyes. The tent was leaking badly now, and the storm beat against it in straining gusts.

A blue chest of clown paraphernalia stood on the soaked earth by a quarter-pole. Mechanically, Grayson lifted the cover and peered in. A big top, spun by a string, lay on the upper tray. He took it clumsily in his hands. Then he shut the lid with a bang, and skipped like a boy back to his old position facing Rajah. He held up the toy, as if the seared old elephant’s eyes were taking special cognisance of his actions. Know what I’m going to do, Rajah?’ he demanded. ‘ I’m just goin’ to spin this top an’ sec where we’ll go to-morrow.’ He took a big pencil from his pocket, and on the cover of another chest standing just inside the ropes, laboriously printed the names of several towns. Then he made a big, black dot in the centre. ‘ I’ll just start it on that middle dot, and whatever town she stops on, we’ll put up there till I get a notion of what we can do,’ he explained, as if to an audience. The big top sprang with a low hum from the string. The elephant’s trunk ceased its constant motion, as the animal caught the red, shining blur of the new object. Then, while Grayson sat watching the steel pin move steadily from dot to dot in a dizzy oval, Rajah, apparently attracted by what appeared to his

uncertain eyes to be a sort of beet or carrot, swept up the plaything suddenly with his trunk. ‘Here! here!’ cried Grayson, springing from his seat and reaching out a hand. But the elephant, already filled with dismay at the ugly, whirling thing in his trunk, had flung the wooden toy to the far side of the tent. Grayson stared at him dejectedly. ‘ You’ve ruined our luck, Rajahyours and mine,’ he declared. He stopped abruptly, amazed at his thought. ‘ Rajah,’ he demanded, ‘ did you mean that for a sign? Maybe ' He stared again and then laughed. ‘ if you’re meanin’ you’re a prophet, and that somethin’ is goin’ to happen that we won’t have to quit—but——l guess,’ he muttered soberly, ‘ I guess I’ve been just a little quper in my head. You ain’t a prophet. You just thought that there top was good to eat, an’ you was hungry, that’s all!’ For a long time afterwards he remained almost motionless on the chest, his grey head sunk in his arms. And, finally, he slept. An hour later an assertive hand aroused him a bit roughly. He stumbled to his feet, blinking at the keeper who had awakened him. The storm had cleared away, and a hot sun was beating blindingly down outside the canvas.

‘ It’s a wonder that elephant didn’t take a notion to step on you,’ Grenville, the keeper, was growling. ‘ You were laying almost under him when I got here.’ The show-folk had returned. All was ,bustle and hurry about the canvases. The promise of fair weather for the evening had plunged the circus into sudden life.

‘ I must have gone to sleep,’ muttered Grayson. You needn’t have worried about Rajah steppin’ on me,’ he added simply. ‘lt’s the last thing Rajah ’ud do, if I’d been lay in’ there all night!’

Grenville laughed in a puzzled way. You must think a deal of that beast, Grayson,’ he ventured. ‘ How long’d you had him before you come here?’ ‘ It’s nine years, altogether,’ Grayson answered. He leaned on the ropes with a far-away look in his eyes. ‘ When a man’s got nothin’ else, Grenville, he’s bound to open up his heart to what’s been his bread and butter, even if it ain’t nothin’ more’n an animal. Rajah stood by me faithful ’til he was hurt!’ The other shifted his position uneasily. ‘ We —we heard down at the cars that you’d—that the old man had sacked you,’ he said. Grayson nodded. 4 I don’ know —we kinder figured it might come• Rajah’s gettin’ laid up an’ all that. We didn’t see how we could get in a mess ourselves howlin’ about it, with all our salaries owing. But the boys decided today we’d get some satisfaction for you from Killeen. He was in a nasty mood—sent us all flyin’ for interferin’. Said you’d have to clear out to-morrow. Grenville cleared his throat, and hurried on: ‘ We was disgusted at havin’ stirred him up then, but the next best thing we could do was to help toward your expenses ’till you can find a place. We ain’t made up much didn’t have it —but the boys want you to take it. You’ve been one of us a good while.’ He stopped, almost embarrassedly, and pulled a handful of coins from his pocket, holding it 1 out to Grayson. I can’t take it, Grenville,’ Grayson said slowly. ‘ You thank ’em, but —I can’t use their money. Rajah an’ I’ll get along somehow. It ain’t all Killeen’s fault. It’s circumstances. He’s had to keep the show together.’ ‘ But he had no right to sack you without a dollar!’ protested the man angrily. ‘He wasn’t payin’ you anything, and what you costin’ him wouldn’t hurt

anybody. You take that money , t Grayson, else the boys 'll blame me. You’ve stayed here all day for us without a bite.’ Grayson hesitated, irresolute. Then he slowly took the coins, and put them carefully away in his coat. ‘ Tell' them I’m much obliged,’ he said, seeming scarcely to hear his own words. Killeen’s alert, magnetic figure as striding by the entrance, and the spark of a dying fire burned for an instant in the trainer’s heavy eyes. ‘They goin’ to give a performance to-night?’ He spoke as if, already, he were no longer a part of the circus in which the last four years of his life had been spent. ‘ Goin’ to try to,’ assented Grenville. His eyes had moved towards the entrance. Now, as he turned to go, the clear, full treble of a child’s laughter drew his attention to the elephant, and he clutched Grayson’s arm with a low exclamation. ‘Grayson, she’ll be hurt! Can’t you get her away ?’ Mary, the little daughter of the manager, had slipped past them unawares, and was fearlessly feeding the big elephant from a bag in her hands. ‘ Wait,’ urged the trainer quietly. *No harm won’t come to her.’ Rajah was continuing gravely to stow away the bread she lavished upon him with girlish gurgles of laughter. When she had emptied the bag, and had blown up and exploded it after the manner of youngsters, she made a motion as if to throw the paper at him. But the big elephant playfully caught her in his trunk, and swung her, still laughing, slowly to and fro, setting her down again carefully. Grenville stared, as if the impossible had taken place before his eyes. (To be concluded.)