“Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” replied Frank gripping his hand and greatly taken at once by the Political Officer’s appearance and friendly manner.  “It was very kind of you to send those guns for me.  But I had no luck.  We saw nothing on the way.”

After greeting him Colonel Dermot bent over his wife and kissed her fondly.  It was obvious to the subaltern that after their five years of married life they were lovers still.  Frank looked at them a little enviously.  He wondered would it be so with Violet and him after the same lapse of time; for the sight of their happiness sent his thoughts flying to the woman who loved him.

“Are you keen on shooting, Wargrave?” said the Colonel.

“Oh, yes, he is, Kevin,” broke in his wife.  “I told him that I was sure you’d be glad to take him with you into the jungle sometimes.”

“I’ll be happy to do so, if you care to come with me, Wargrave,” said the Colonel.

“I’d love to, sir.  It would be awfully good of you,” replied the subaltern eagerly.  “But I’ve only a Mannlicher rifle.”

“Ah, you’ll need a bigger bore than that.  But I can lend you a .470 high velocity cordite weapon.  You want something with great hitting power for dangerous game,” said Dermot.

He went on to speak of the jungle and its denizens; and his conversation was so interesting that Wargrave forgot the flight of time until his hostess reminded him that he had to report his arrival to his commanding officer and find his new quarters.  Her husband volunteered to show him the way to the Mess and introduce him to Major Hunt.

As Wargrave shook hands with Mrs. Dermot, she said: 

“I wanted to ask you to dinner this evening; but Kevin thought you might prefer to spend your first night with your brother officers.  But we shall expect you to-morrow, when they are coming, too.”

On their way up the steep road from his bungalow the Political Officer spoke of the great forest below them and the sport to be found in it.  Then he said: 

“It’s lucky you like shooting, Wargrave, for Ranga Duar is very isolated and life in it dull to a person who has no resources.  Still, it has its advantages, and chief among them is the climate.  It’s delightful in the cold weather and pleasant in the hot.”

“By Jove, it is indeed, sir!  It’s like Heaven after the heat in the Plains below.  I don’t know how I lived through it coming across India.”

“The rainy season is the hardest to bear.  We have five months of it and over three hundred inches of rain during them.  One never sees a strange face then—­not that we ever do have many visitors here at any time.  Still, you’ll like your C.O., and Burke the doctor is a capital fellow.  Here we are.”