filled the forest; for the swift-coming Indian night had fallen.

"Keep well down, Miss Daleham," he said. "You must be on your guard against
being swept off the pad by the low branches."

"Oh, Major Dermot," cried the girl with a shudder, "have all these terrible
things really happened in the last few hours or has it all been a hideous
nightmare?"

"Please try not to think of them," he answered. "You are safe now."

"Yes; but you? You have to face these dangers again, since you are so much
in the jungle. Oh, my forest that I thought a fairyland! That such terrible
things can happen in it!"

"I can assure you that they are very unusual," he replied with a cheery
laugh. "You have been very fortunate; for you have crammed more excitement
and adventure into one day than I have seen previously in all my time in
the jungle."

"It all seems so incredible," she said. "Did you really mean that Badshah
brought his herd to our rescue? But I know he did. I heard him call them.
When he ran off I thought that he was frightened and had abandoned us. But
I did him a great injustice."

Her companion was silent for a moment. Then he said:

"Look here, Miss Daleham, we had better not tell that tale of Badshah quite
in that way. It would seem impossible, and no European would credit it.
Natives would, of course, for as it is they seem to look upon him as a god