e had been asked, but he had not
returned any definite reply. She hoped he would be prevented.

"Oh, don't you like him?" said Noel. "I detest him myself. That's partly
why I'm so keen on smashing his team to-morrow. He's a slippery
customer, he and that wily old dog Kobad Shikan. They'd erupt, the two
of them, if they dared and overwhelm us all. But--they daren't!" And
Noel turned his face upwards, and laughed an exceeding British laugh.

"I wonder how you know these things," said Olga, watching him.

"What? I don't know 'em of course. I'm only assuming," said Noel. "I
only play about on the surface, as it were, and draw my own conclusions
as to the depths. It's quite a fascinating game, and nobody's any the
worse or the wiser."

"And you think Kobad Shikan untrustworthy?" questioned Olga.

"My dear girl, could anyone with any sense whatever think him anything
else? Could he have run the show for so many years if he had been
anything less than a crafty old schemer? Oh, you bet he hasn't been
Prime Minister and Lord High Treasurer all this time for nothing. What
does Nick think of him?"

"Nick never discusses any of them." Olga was considerably astonished by
these revelations. "I thought it was fairly plain sailing," she said.

"Did you though? Well, Nick is a genius, as everyone knows. He is
probably in the thick of everything, and knows all that goes on. He'll
be a C.S.I. before he's done."

"Oh, do you think so?" said Olga, with shining eyes.

"Rather! It's pretty evident. You wait till old Reggie comes along, and
ask him. He is a great backer of Nick's. So am I," said Noel modestly.
"I'd back him against all the Kobad Shikans in the Empire."

This, as Noel had doubtless foreseen, proved a fruitful topic of
conversation and lasted them during a considerable part of their drive.
Nearly the whole of the way lay through the jungle, here and there
narrowing to little more than a track over which great forest-trees
stretched their boughs. It was all new country to Olga, and the quiet,
sunless depths as they advanced, held her awe-struck, spellbound. She
gazed into the thick undergrowth with half-fearful curiosity. Once, at a
sudden loud flapping of wings, she started and changed colour.

"There must be so many wild things there," she said.

"Teeming with 'em," said Noel. "We've come along at a rattling pace.
Shall we pull up and wait for the rest to turn up?"

But Olga did not want to linger on the jungle-ro