doctor grinned.

"We won't waste words on him, Captain Burke," said the girl. "It's time
to go home now."

They escorted her to the Dermots' bungalow, where the doctor lingered
for a few more minutes in her society, while Wargrave climbed up to the
Mess and went to look at the panther's skin pegged out on the ground
under a thick coating of ashes and now as hard as a board after a day's
exposure to the burning sun.

A few days later Miss Benson left the station to rejoin her father in
one of the three or four isolated wooden bungalows built to accommodate
the Forest Officer in different parts of his district, each one lost and
lonely in the silent jungle. For days after her departure Burke was
visibly depressed; and Wargrave, too, missed the bright and attractive
girl who had enlivened the quiet little station during her stay.

A fortnight later Colonel Dermot returned from Bhutan; and his gratitude
to the subaltern for the rescue of his children was sincere and
heart-felt. He was only too glad to take the young man out into the
jungle on every possible occasion and continue his instruction in the
ways of the forest. This companionship and the sport were particularly
beneficial to Wargrave just then. For they served to take him out of
himself and raise him from the state of depression into which he was
falling, thanks to Violet's letters, the tone of which was becoming more
bitter each time she wrote.

Her reply to his long and cheery epistle describing Ranga Duar's unusual
burst of gaiety during the Envoy's visit and his own rescue of the
children was as follows:

"You do not seem to miss me much among your new friends. While I am
leading a most unhappy and miserable life here you appear to be
enjoying yourself and giving little thought to me. You are lucky to
have two such very beautiful ladies to make much of you; and I
daresay they think you a wonderful hero for saving the little brats
who, if they are like most children, would not be much loss. Their
mother seems extremely friendly to you for such a devoted wife as
you try to make her out to be. Or perhaps it is the girl you admire
most; this marvellous young lady who shoots tigers and apparently
manages the whole Terai Forest. You say you love me; but you don't
seem to be pining very much for me. While each day that comes since
you left me is a fresh agony to me, you appear to contrive to be
quite happy wi