men?"

Brace heard me, and took out the little glass slung from his shoulder.

"Yes," he said. "It must be a message from the major. Good Heavens! I
hope there is nothing wrong."

A word or two in Hindustani from the doctor to the mahout, and our
elephant began to shuffle toward the one coming, for Brace had gone on
at once.

Our elephant made a good circuit to avoid the dead tiger, holding his
trunk high, and evidently in doubt as to whether the beast was feigning
death; and directly after we were close up to the messenger, whom I saw
to be Denny, the man who had come over in the _Jumna_, and whose
sweetheart I had jumped overboard to save.

"What is it, Denny? Anything wrong?" cried Brace.

The man gave him a wild look, and nodded his head, as he held on by one
hand to the rope which secured the elephant's pad.

"Well, well!" cried Brace, excitedly; "what is it? Speak."

The man's lips parted, and one hand went up towards his head, while the
mahout who had brought him looked back with his face full of horror.
Then, as our elephant was urged up on the other side, the doctor reached
over from the howdah, and by a quick movement caught the poor fellow's
arm just as his hold had given way, and he was about to pitch off the
pad to the ground.

"I thought so," cried the doctor, helping to lower him down. "He was
fainting. The poor fellow has been wounded--badly, too!"

"What is this? How did he get hurt?" cried Brace to the mahout in
Hindustani.

"My lord, I don't know. He came on a poor horse, and ordered me to come
to you. My lord, he is very bad."

Just then the rajah came up, and I fancied there was a peculiar look in
his face. He had changed colour, and seemed wild and strange, and when
Brace fixed his eyes upon him he averted his gaze.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

I noticed all this, but our attention was taken up by the wounded man,
to whose side we had rapidly descended, all thought of tigers being now
at an end.

"The poor fellow has been set upon by budmashes as he was on his way
here with a despatch," said Brace. "Let me come a minute, doctor, and
search his pockets."

"Hang the despatch, man!" said the doctor sternly. "I want to save the
lad's life."

He was down on his knees by Denny's side, and had taken out his
pocket-book and thrown it open, displaying surgical instruments,
needles, silk, and bandages.

"Here, Vincent, come and help me," he said. "Some of you cut a branch
or