The subaltern looked up doubtfully at the pad on Badshah’s back.

“How can I, sir?  Isn’t he going to kneel?” he asked.

“Put your foot on his trunk when he crooks it and grab hold of his ears.  He’ll lift you up then.”

The understanding elephant at once curled its trunk invitingly and cocked its great ears forward.  Frank did as he was directed and found himself raised in the air until he was able to get on to the elephant’s head and from it scrambled on to the pad.  Dermot followed and seated himself astride the huge neck.

“Mul! (Go on!)” he ejaculated.

With a swaying, lurching stride Badshah at once moved across the clearing, followed by the transport elephant, on to which a mahout and a coolie had climbed, and plunged into the dense undergrowth which was so high that it nearly closed over the riders’ heads.  The sudden change from the blinding glare of the sun to the enchanting green gloom of the forest, from the intense heat to the refreshing coolness of the shade, was delightful.

Beyond the clearing the vegetation was tangled and rank, high grass concealing thorny shrubs, tall matted bushes covered with large, white, bell-shaped flowers, all so dense that men on foot could not push their way through.  But it divided like water before the leading elephant’s weight and strength.  The trees were now not the lesser growths of bamboo, lime and sago-palm that covered the foot-hills.  They were the great forest giants, enormous teak, sal and simal trees, towering up bare of branches for a good height above the ground, rising to the green canopy overhead and thrusting their leafy crowns through it, seeking their share of the sunlight.  Their massive branches were matted thick with the glossy green leaves of orchid-plants and draped with long trails of the beautiful mauve and white blossoms of the exotic flowers.  Hanging from the highest branches or swinging between the massive boles creepers of every kind rioted in bewildering confusion, a chaos of natural cordage, of festooned lianas thick as a liner’s hawser, some twisting around each other, others coiling about the tree-trunks, biting deep into the bark or striving to strangle them in a cruel grip.  Not even the elephants’ weight and strength could burst through the stout network of these creepers in places.  While they tore at the obstructions with their trunks it was necessary for their drivers to hack through the creepers with their sharp kukris—­the heavy curved knives carried in their belts and similar to the Gurkha’s favourite weapon.

Here and there the party came upon glades free from undergrowth, where in the cool shade of the great trees the ground was knee-deep in bracken.  In one such spot Wargrave’s eye was caught by a flash of bright colour, and his rifle went half-way to his shoulder, only to be lowered again when he saw two sambhur hinds, graceful animals with glossy chestnut hides, watching the advancing elephants curiously but without fear.  For, used to seeing wild ones, they did not realise that Badshah and his companion carried human beings.  Their sex saved them from the hunters who, leaving them unscathed, passed on and plunged into the dense undergrowth on the far side of the clearing.