"How did they behave to you?"

"No one took any notice of me. They simply carried me, lifted me up, and
dumped me down as if I were a tea-chest," replied the girl. "Well, that is
all my adventure. But now please tell me how you came so opportunely to my
rescue. Was it by chance or did you follow us? Oh, I forgot. You said you
saw Lalla, so you must have been at Malpura. Did Fred send you?"

Dermot briefly related all that had happened. When he told her of his
dispute with Badshah about the route to be followed and how the elephant
proved to be in the right she cried enthusiastically:

"Oh, the dear thing! He's just the most wonderful animal in the world.
Forgive me for interrupting. Please go on."

When he had finished his tale there was silence between them for a little.
Then Noreen said in a voice shaking with emotion:

"How can I thank you? Again you have saved me. And this time from a fate
even more dreadful than the first. I'd sooner be killed outright by the
elephants than endure to be carried off to some awful place by those
wretches. Who were they? Were they brigands, like one reads of in Sicily?
Was I to be killed or to be held to ransom?"

"Oh, the latter, I suppose," replied Dermot.

But there was a doubtful tone about his words. In fact, he was at a loss to
understand the affair. It was probably not what he had thought it at
first--an attempt on the part of enterprising Bhuttia raiders to carry off
an Englishwoman for ransom. For when he overtook them they were on a path