She looked around but could see nothing except elephants, which were regarding her solemnly.

“But where have you come from?  Are you far from your camp?” persisted Dermot.  “Shall I take you to it?”

“Oh, we are not in camp,” replied Noreen.  “I live on a tea-garden.  It is quite near.  I can walk back, thank you, if you are sure that the elephants won’t do me any harm.”

But as she spoke she felt her knees give way under her from weakness, and she was obliged to sit down on the ground.  The shock of the fall and the fright had affected her more than she realised.

Dermot laid his hand on Badshah’s head, and the animal knelt down.

“I’m afraid you are not fit to walk far,” said Dermot.  “I must take you back.”

As he spoke he slipped to the ground.  From a pocket in the pad he extracted a flask of brandy, with which he filled a small silver cup.

“Drink this,” he said, holding it to her lips.  “It will do you good.”

Noreen obeyed and drank a little of the spirit.  Then, before she could protest, she was lifted in Dermot’s arms and placed on the pad on Badshah’s back.  This cool disposal of her took her breath away, but to her surprise she felt that she rather liked it.  There was something attractive in her new acquaintance’s unconsciously authoritative manner.

Replacing the flask he said: 

“Are you used to riding elephants?”

She shook her head.

“Then hold on to this rope across the pad, otherwise you may slip off when Badshah rises to his feet.  You had better keep your hand on it as we go along, though there isn’t much danger of your falling.”

As he got astride the elephant’s neck he continued:  “Now, be ready.  Hold on tightly.  Uth, Badshah!”

Despite his warning Noreen nearly slipped off the pad at the sudden and jerky upheaval when the elephant rose.

“Now please show me the direction in which your garden lies, if you can,” said Dermot.

“Oh, it is quite near,” Noreen answered.  “That is the road to it.”

She let the rope go to point out the way, but instantly grasped it again.  Dermot turned Badshah’s head down the track.

“Oh, what about all these other elephants?” asked the girl apprehensively, looking at them where they were grouped together, gazing with curiosity at Badshah’s passengers.  “Will they come too?”

“No,” said Dermot reassuringly, “you needn’t be afraid.  They won’t follow.  We’d create rather too much of a sensation if we arrived at your bungalow at the head of a hundred hathis.”

“But are they really wild?” she asked.  “They look so quiet and inoffensive now; though when I was on the ground they seemed very dreadful indeed.  But I was told that wild elephants are dangerous.”

“Some of them undoubtedly are,” replied Dermot.  “But a herd is fairly inoffensive, if you don’t go too near it.  Cow-elephants with young calves can be very vicious, if they suspect danger to their offspring.”