rajah tried to have him killed in his
palace by a mad tusker, which had just slaughtered several men, and the
moment the brute got face to face with him it was cowed and obeyed him
like a dog?"

"Good gracious, is that so?"

"Yes, I could tell you even more extraordinary things about his power
over elephants; but some day when you're in the jungle with him you may
see it for yourself. Oh, isn't it hot? I do wish we were home."

Arrived at the _dak_ bungalow the tiger's carcase was lowered to the
ground and given over to the knives of the flayers summoned from the
_bazaar_ of Madpur Duar a mile away. As soon as the news was known in
the small town crowds of Hindu women streamed to the bungalow compound,
where with their _saris_ (shawls) pulled modestly across their brown
faces by rounded arms tinkling with glass bangles they squatted on the
ground and waited patiently until the skin was drawn clear off the raw
red carcase. Then they crowded around a couple of the older _mahouts_
who, first cutting off all the firm white fat of the well-fed cattle
thief to be melted down for oil (esteemed to be a sovereign remedy for
rheumatism), hacked the flesh into chunks which they threw into the
eager hands of the women. These took the meat home to cook for their
husbands to eat to instil into them the spirit and vigour of a tiger.
The skin, spread out and pegged to the ground, was covered with wood
ashes and left to dry. Little of the animal was left but the bones, to
the disappointment of the wheeling, whistling kites waiting on soaring
wings in the sky above.

After tea the two officers took their leave with many expressions of
gratitude from the younger man to the girl for her kindness in arranging
the beat for him. Hours afterwards, as they halted in the forest for a
rest in the middle of the night, Colonel Dermot said:

"You told me once that you'd like a job like mine, Wargrave. Would you
care for frontier political work here?"

"I'd love it, sir," exclaimed the subaltern enthusiastically. "Would it
be possible to get it?"

"Well, I've been thinking for some time of applying to the Government of
India for an assistant political officer who would help me and take over
if I went on leave, but I'd want to train my own man and not merely
accept any youngster who was pitchforked into the Department just
because he had a father or an uncle with a pull at Simla. Now, if you
like I'll apply for you, on condition that you'll wo