The tip of the trunk touched his face in a gentle caress. Then he stepped
back and said: "Now we'll go at once, Miss Daleham. We won't stop this time
until we reach your bungalow."

The girl had already recovered her courage and stood beside him.

"But you are wounded. There's blood on your face and on your neck. Are you
badly hurt?"

Dermot laughed reassuringly.

"To tell you the truth I had forgotten all about it. They are only
scratches. The skin is cut, that's all. Come, we mustn't delay any longer."

At a word from him Badshah knelt. He hurriedly threw the pad on the
elephant's back and made him rise so that the surcingle rope could be
fixed. Then he brought the animal to his knees again and lifted Noreen on
to the pad. But before he took his own seat he searched the undergrowth
around the glade and found many corpses of men almost unrecognisable as
human bodies, so crushed and battered were they. From the number that he
came upon it was evident that most of their assailants had been slain. But
all the elephants except his had disappeared; and the sounds of the
massacre were dying away.

Slinging his rifle he climbed on to the pad; and Badshah rose and went
swiftly along a track that seemed to Dermot to lead towards Malpura. He did
not attempt to guide the elephant, but placed himself so that his body
would shield the girl from the danger of being struck by overhanging
boughs. He held her firmly as they were borne through the darkness that now