tood leaning against him--a glimmering,
ghostly figure, whose tattered garments were happily hidden by the
darkness.

"Do you think you can manage to climb back to the road now?" he asked;
"there may be snakes about here, you know."

"I will try," said Elma.

"I will go first," he said. "You had better hold on to my coat, I think.
That will leave my hands free to pull us up."

Very slowly and laboriously they clambered back again to the road above;
there was no sign of the jampannis, and the jampan itself had gone over
the _kudd_ and was no more to be seen.

They sat down exhausted on the rising bank on the other side of the
road.

"How did you get here?" he asked.

"My jampan went over the side, down the precipice," said Elma, "and I am
afraid those poor jampannis must have been killed."

The stranger laughed long and loud, and Elma, in the reaction of her
relief, laughed too.

"I have not the slightest idea what you are laughing at," she said.

"You have not been long in this country?" he asked.

"Why?"

"You do not know the jampanni. As soon as the jampan tilted they let go,
and directly they saw you had gone over they ran away. Killed! Well,
that is likely! I daresay they will come back here presently to pick up
the pieces, when they have got over their panic: they are not really
bad-hearted, you know. We will wait a little while and see."

There was silence between them for a few peaceful moments; then Elma
said gently, "I thank you with all my heart."

"Oh, not at all!" said the stranger politely.

They both laughed again, young, heart-whole, clear laughter, that echoed
strangely on those world-old hills.

"Words are very inadequate," said Elma presently.

"Oh, one understands all right without words," said he; "but where is
the rest of your party, I wonder? I suppose you were not alone?"

"Mother has gone to a dinner-party," she answered. "Oh dear, what ought
I to do? She will be so frightened! She is waiting for me. I must get
some one to go and tell her I am all right. How could I sit here and
forget how frightened she will be when I don't come!"

"We had better wait a little longer, I think," he said. "You cannot walk
just yet, can you?"

"My shoes are all cut to pieces," she owned ruefully. "I suppose we must
wait. It was very lucky for me you were passing just then."

"Yes, I had just cut the shop for an hour or two, and I came round here
to have a quiet smoke. Lost my way, as a ma