“But I say, Major,” cried a planter, “who the devil were the lot that attacked you?”

“I’m hanged if I know,” Dermot answered.  “I have been inclined to believe them to be a gang of political dacoits, probably coming to meet the Bhuttias and take Miss Daleham from them, but in that case they would have been young Brahmins and better armed.  This lot were low-caste men and their weapons were mostly old muzzle-loading muskets.”

“Perhaps they were just ordinary dacoits,” hazarded a planter.

“Possibly; but they must have been new to the business,” replied the Major.  “For there wouldn’t be much of an opening for robbers in the middle of the forest.”

“It’s a puzzle.  I can’t make it out,” said Granger, shaking his head.

The others discussed the subject for some time, but no one could elucidate the mystery.  At length Dermot said to Daleham: 

“No answer has come to that telegram you sent to Ranga Duar, I suppose?”

“No, Major; though there’s been plenty of time for a reply.”

“It’s strange.  Parker would have answered at once if he’d got the wire, I know,” said Dermot.  “But did he?  Most of the telegraph clerks in this Province are Brahmins—­I don’t trust them.  Anyhow, if Parker did receive the wire, he’d start a party off at once.  It’s a long forty miles, and marching through the jungle is slow work.  They couldn’t get here before dawn.  And the men would be pretty done up.”

“I bet they would if they had to go through the forest in the dark,” said a planter.

“Well, I want to start at daybreak to search the scene of the attack on us and the place where I came on the Bhuttias.  Will some of you fellows come with me?”

“Rather.  We’ll all go,” was the shout from all at the table.

“Thanks.  We may round up some of the survivors.”

“I say, Major, would you tell us a thing that’s puzzled me, and I daresay more than me?” ventured a young assistant manager, voicing the thoughts of others present.  “How the deuce did those wild elephants happen to turn up just in the nick of time for you?”

“They were probably close by and the firing disturbed them,” was the careless answer.

“H’m; very curious, wasn’t it, Major?” said Granger.  “You know the habits of the jungli hathi better than most other people.  Wouldn’t they be far more likely to run away from the firing than right into it?”

“As a rule.  But when wild elephants stampede in a panic they’ll go through anything.”

The assistant manager was persistent.

“But how did your elephant chance to join up with them?” he asked.  “Judging by the look of him he took a very prominent part in clearing your enemies off.”

“Oh, Badshah is a fighter.  I daresay if there was a scrap anywhere near him he’d like to be in it,” replied Dermot lightly, and tried to change the conversation.