im with the pleasant sense of "chum-ship," than which
there is no happier, more durable bond of union between a man and a woman.

The Season brought the work in which Dermot was engaged to a standstill,
and, keen lover of sport as he was, he was not tempted to risk the
fevers of the jungle. Life in the small station of Ranga Duar was dull
indeed. Day and night the rain rattled incessantly on the iron roofs
of the bungalows--six or eight inches in twenty-four hours being not
unusual. Thunderstorms roared and echoed among the hills for twenty or
thirty hours at a stretch. All outdoor work or exercise was impossible.
The outpost was nearly always shrouded in dense mist. Insect pests
abounded. Scorpions and snakes invaded the buildings. Outside, from
every blade of grass, every leaf and twig, a thin and hungry leech waved
its worm-like, yellow-striped body in the air, seeming to scent any
approaching man or beast on which it could fasten and gorge itself fat
with blood. Certainly a small station on the face of the Himalayas is
not a desirable place of residence during the rains, and to persons
of melancholy temperament would be conducive to suicide or murder.
Fortunately for themselves the two white men in Ranga Duar took life
cheerily and were excellent friends.

* * * * *

By this time Noreen considered herself quite an old resident of Darjeeling.
But she had felt the greatest reluctance to go when her brother had helped
her into the dogcart for the long drive to the railway. Fred was unable to
take her even as far as the train, for his manager had one of his periodic
attacks of what was euphemistically termed his "illness." But Chunerbutty
volunteered to escort Noreen to the hills, as he had been summoned again to
his sick father's side, the said parent being supposed to be in attendance
on his Rajah who had taken a house in Darjeeling for the season. As a
matter of fact his worthy progenitor had never left Lalpuri. However,
Daleham knew nothing of that, and, being empowered to do so when Parry was
incapacitated, gladly gave him permission to go and gratefully accepted his
offer to look after the girl on the journey.

Noreen would much have preferred going alone, but her brother refused to
entertain the idea. Although she knew nothing of the suspicions of her
Bengali friend entertained by Dermot, she sensed a certain disapproval on
his part of Fred's and her intimacy with Chunerbutty, and