o had known her in her days of prosperity.

The widow, having drunk from a cup which contained opium, climbed to
the top of the pyre where her husband lay, swathed in white. She gazed
about wildly, and her courage and resolve took wings. She stumbled
down. A low hissing ran about.

"Make the white woman suttee in her place!" cried the drunken mahout.

The cry was taken up by the spectators. Kathlyn felt herself dragged
from the elephant, bound and finally laid beside the swathed figure.
There could be no horror in the wide world like it. Smoke began to
curl up from the underbrush. It choked and stifled her. Sparks rose
and dropped upon her arms and face. And through the smoke and flame
came Rajah. He lifted her with his powerful trunk and carried her off,
for hours and hours, back into the trackless jungle. . . .

Kathlyn found herself, all at once, sitting against the roots of an
aged banyan tree. A few yards away an ape sat on his haunches and eyed
her curiously. A little farther off Rajah browsed in a clump of weeds,
the howdah at a rakish angle, like the cocked hat of a bully. Kathlyn
stared at her hands. There were no burns there; she passed a hand over
her face; there was no smart or sting. A dream; she had dreamed it; a
fantasy due to her light-headed state of mind. A dream! She cried and
laughed, and the ape jibbered at her uneasily.

In reality, Rajah, freed of his unwelcome mahout, had legged it down
the road without so much as trumpeting his farewell, and the soldiers
had not been able to stop him.

How she had managed to get down would always remain a mystery to her.
Food and water, food and water; in her present state she must have both
or die. Let them send her back to Allaha; she was beaten; she was
without the will to resist further. All she wanted was food and water
and sleep, sleep. After that they might do what they pleased with her.

For the first time since the extraordinary flight from Allaha Kathlyn
recollected the "elephant talk" which Ahmed had taught her. She rose
wearily and walked toward Rajah, who cocked his ears at the sound of
her approach. She talked to him for a space in monotone. She held out
her hands; the dry raspy trunk curled out toward them. Rajah was
evidently willing to meet her half-way. She ordered him to kneel.
Without even pausing to think it over Rajah bent his calloused knees,
and gratefully Kathlyn crawled back into the howdah. Food and water