"My dear girl, get that silly idea that elephants are not dangerous out of
your head," said Daleham decidedly. "You ask any of the fellows."

"Mr. Parry says they're not."

"Old Parr's never seen any elephant but a tame one, unless it's a pink or
speckled one with a brass tail climbing up the wall of his room when he's
got D.T's. He never went out shooting in the jungle in his life. But you
ask Payne or Reynolds or any of the chaps on the other gardens who know
anything of the jungle."

The girl was unwilling to believe that her beloved forest could prove
perilous to her, and she feared lest her excursions into it should be
forbidden.

"Well, perhaps a rogue might be dangerous," she admitted grudgingly. "But I
don't believe that even a rogue would attack you unprovoked."

"Wouldn't it? From all I've heard about them I'd be very sorry to give one
of them the chance," said her brother. "I'd almost like you to meet one,
just to teach you not to be such a cocksure young woman. Lord! wouldn't I
laugh to see you trying to climb a tree--that is, if I were safe up one
myself!"

The arrival of the ponies cut short the discussion. Daleham swung his
sister up into the saddle of her smart little countrybred and mounted his
own waler.

Out along the road through the estate they trotted in the cool northerly
breeze that swept down from the mountains and tempered the sun's heat. The