The elephant who had the huge tusks stepped into the ring, and tried to get behind Mukna, but Mukna turned around to prevent him from doing so. Then the elephant master ordered two other elephants to step into the ring. These two came and pointed their tusks at Mukna's ribs on each side. So Mukna could not turn. In defiance he held up his head, and curled his trunk tight before him.
"Hit me, if you like, but I won't give in!" he seemed to say.
Five blows he took from the other elephant's tusks without flinching. But at the sixth blow he stumbled forward, and fell to the ground.
The elephant master stepped into the ring.
Then the elephant master made a sign to the two bulls. They came to Mukna from each side, and prodded him in the ribs with their tusks. So Mukna was forced to stand up.
He steadied himself and received four more blows. Then at the next blow, which was the eleventh, he fell again.
Mukna again refused to arise. So the two bulls on the sides prodded him again, and forced him to arise.
This time Mukna stood only two more blows; then he fell again. The place where he was receiving the blows was now raw and bleeding. So the elephant master gave him a chance.
But Mukna defiantly arose to his feet, without waiting to be prodded. And he defiantly held up his head and curled up his trunk.
"You may hit me as much as you like, but I won't give in!" he seemed to say.
At the next blow, which was the fourteenth, Mukna again fell. He was getting weaker and weaker, and now he could not stand more than one blow at a time.
Seeing his weakness, the elephant master allowed him to lie there for five minutes.
Then he asked Mukna, "Is it _now_ enough?"
Slowly, painfully, Mukna got up. He looked around with bleary, bloodshot eyes; he thought, "Can I not yet escape?"
But a row of tusks, like a row of bayonets, faced him on all sides.
Still he would not give in. With a fierce resolution he tried to curl up his trunk in defiance. He could not do so at once, but after an effort he succeeded.
"I won't give in, even if I die!" he seemed to say, though he was rocking unsteadily in growing weakness.
"Then we shall break your obstinate spirit!" the elephant master cried.
So Mukna received the next blow, which was the fifteenth. He fell. But after a while he rose again in defiance, and received the sixteenth blow. Then he fell in a heap. The side of his head hit the ground, and he rolled over.