“Oh, they have made me a sort of honorary member of the herd for his sake, I think.  He and I are great pals,” and Dermot laid his hand affectionately on Badshah’s head.  “He saved my life not long ago when I was attacked by a vicious rogue.”

Noreen suddenly remembered the conversation at the club lunch.

“Oh, are you the officer from the Fort up at Ranga Duar?” she asked.

“One of them.  I am commanding the detachment of Military Police there,” he answered.  “My name is Dermot.”

“Then I’ve heard of you.  I understand now.  They said that you could do wonderful things with wild elephants, that you went about the forest with a herd of them.”

“They said?” he exclaimed.  “Who are ’they’?”

“The men at the club.  We have a planters’ club for the district, you know.  At our last weekly meeting they spoke of you and said that you had nearly been killed by a rogue.  Mr. Payne told us that he used to know you.”

“What?  Payne of Salchini?  I knew him well.  Awfully good chap.”

“Yes, isn’t he?  I like him so much.”

“I saw a lot of him when I was stationed at Buxa Duar with my Double Company.  Hullo! here we are at a tea-garden.”

They had suddenly come out of the forest on to the open stretch of furrowed land planted with the orderly rows of tidy bushes.

“Yes; it is ours.  It’s called Malpura,” said Noreen.  “My brother is the assistant manager.  Our name is Daleham.”

“Here comes somebody in a hurry,” remarked Dermot, pointing to where, on the road ahead of them, a man on a pony was galloping towards them with a cloud of dust rising behind him.

“Yes, it’s my brother.  Oh, what’s happening?” she exclaimed.

For as he approached his pony scented the elephant and stopped dead suddenly, nearly throwing its rider over its head.

“Fred!  Fred!  Here I am!” she cried.

But Daleham’s animal was unused to elephants and positively refused to approach Badshah.  In vain its rider strove to make it go on.  It suddenly put an end to the dispute between them by swinging round and bolting back the way that it had come, despite its master’s efforts to hold it.

Noreen looked after the pair anxiously.

“You needn’t be alarmed, Miss Daleham,” said Dermot consolingly.  “Your brother is quite all right.  Once he gets to a safe distance from Badshah the pony will pull up.  Horses are always afraid of elephants until they get used to them.  See, he is slowing up already.”

When the girl was satisfied that her brother was in no danger she smiled at the dramatic abruptness of his departure.

“Poor Fred!  He must have been awfully worried over me,” she said.  “He probably thought I was killed or at least had met with a bad accident.  And now the poor boy can’t get near me.”

“I daresay he was alarmed if your pony went home riderless.”