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 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 already.”

“Yes; but you think as I do, don’t you?” she exclaimed in surprise.  “Surely you believe that he did bring the other elephants to save us.”

“Yes, I do.  I know that he did, for I—­well, between ourselves I have seen him do even more wonderful things.  But others wouldn’t believe us, and I don’t want to emphasise the marvellous part of the story.  I’d rather people thought that the dacoits, or whoever those men were who attacked us, accidentally fell foul of a herd of wild elephants.”

“Perhaps you are right.  But we know.  It will be just our own secret and Badshah’s,” she said dreamily.