e forest for hours without stopping, except to change
the bearers of my chair. I noticed that the leader spoke to one man only,
the man with the scars on his face whom you shot, too, and he passed on the
orders."

"Could you tell in what language these two spoke to each other?"

"No; they never talked in my hearing. In fact I noticed that the man with
shoes always avoided coming near me. Well, we went on and on and never
halted until we reached the place where you found us. It seemed to be a
spot that they had aimed for. I saw the scarred man examining some marks on
the trees in it and pointing them out to the leader, who then gave the
order to stop."

"How did they behave to you?"

"No one took any notice of me. They simply carried me, lifted me up, and
dumped me down as if I were a tea-chest," replied the girl. "Well, that is
all my adventure. But now please tell me how you came so opportunely to my
rescue. Was it by chance or did you follow us? Oh, I forgot. You said you
saw Lalla, so you must have been at Malpura. Did Fred send you?"

Dermot briefly related all that had happened. When he told her of his
dispute with Badshah about the route to be followed and how the elephant
proved to be in the right she cried enthusiastically:

"Oh, the dear thing! He's just the most wonderful animal in the world.
Forgive me for interrupting. Please go on."

When he had finished his tale there was silence between them for a little.
Then Noreen said in a voice shaking with emotion:

"How can I thank you? Again you have saved me. And this time from a fate
even more dreadful than the first. I'd sooner be killed outright by the
elephants than endure to be carried off to some awful place by those
wretches. Who were they? Were they brigands, like one reads of in Sicily?
Was I to be killed or to be held to ransom?"

"Oh, the latter, I suppose," replied Dermot.

But there was a doubtful tone about his words. In fact, he was at a loss to
understand the affair. It was probably not what he had thought it at
first--an attempt on the part of enterprising Bhuttia raiders to carry off
an Englishwoman for ransom. For when he overtook them they were on a path
that led away from the mountains, so they were not making for Bhutan. And
the identity of the leader perplexed him.

There could be no political motive for the outrage. The affair was a
puzzle. But he put the matter aside for the time being and began to
consider their position. The