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Sergeant,he had a rather different problem to deal with now. The crowd swept by us without taking any notice.
    â€œHere,” said Beef again, and then, because there was nothing else to do, we joined in the procession behind the elephant and walked slowly out of the field and into the main street of the village. The elephant appeared to know the way, for it turned confidently down towards the market-place. By this time most of the population of the village had collected and were joining in the laughter at the free show. Beef angrily elbowed his way to the front of the crowd to where Tug, the hunchback we had first met in the elephant tent, was marching, a broad grin on his face, at the head of the elephant.
    â€œHere,” said Beef once again, laying his hand on the man’s shoulder, “who’s supposed to be looking after this animal?”
    â€œS’right,” said Tug cheerfully, “that’s me.”
    â€œWell, can’t you make him put young Albert down?” asked Beef.
    Tug looked at Beef as if he found something immensely funny in this last sentence. “Can’t make an elephant do anything,” he said. “At least, not unless he wants to. And when he wants to do something, then you can’t stop him. Not unless, that is, he wants to be stopped.”
    This somewhat involved statement was interrupted however by the elephant itself, who had moved on ahead of the arguing couple and had reached the market-place and made its way over to a large slimy pond which occupied one corner of it. Walking in until the water was above its knees, it suddenly released the shouting Albert and began unconcernedly to squirt water over its own back. Albert struggled to the edge of the pond and climbed out on to the bank as Beef and Tug arrived on the scene.
    â€œYou did that on purpose,” he shouted at the hunchback, in a voice which had become high pitched with anger.
    Tug, who obviously thought himself something of a “funnyman,” shrugged his shoulders innocently and looked round at his audience with an imploring gesture of his hands.
    â€œYes you did,” persisted Albert. “That elephant wouldn’t have done a thing like that on its own. You told it to.”
    â€œThe elephant,” said Tug, “never forgets.” Which witticism raised a howl of laughter from the audience.
    But Albert was apparently not in a joking mood. He pushed forward until only an inch or two separated him from the hunchback.
    â€œI’m not a fool,” he said angrily. And then, as the people seemed to be taking this as a joke too, he turned suddenly on them. “Yes, I know you think so,” he went on, “you think this is a great joke. You’re always doing this sort of thing to me. That’s all I’m here for—to be laughed at. Well, I’ve just about had enough of it.”
    An anonymous voice from the center of the crowd called out, “Poor little Albert. He’s getting all hot and bothered. Let’s put him back in the nice cool water.”
    Beef turned to me and said quietly: “I’m going to put a stop to this.”
    â€œYou’d better keep out of it,” I told him, with a vision of the Sergeant himself following his nephew into the pond.
    â€œCan’t have so many of them on to one,” said Beef, and stepped forward. He stood square in front of Tug, who seemed, as much as anyone, the leader of the demonstration.
    â€œNow then,” he said, “this has gone far enough.”
    â€œWhat the—is it to do with you?” Tug asked.
    Never mind about that,” said Beef calmly. “You leave the boy alone and get back to your jobs. The whole lot of you.” And he slowly moved an authoritative hand in the direction of the circus tents.
    I watched him with keen interest, and once again found myself startled by Beef’s success. It really is an extraordinary thing about him that whenever I am most