to her.

"Goodnight, Badshah. _Salaam_!" said Mrs. Dermot, waving her hand to the
mammoth, while her little daughter on Wargrave's shoulder imitated her.

The big animal raised its trunk in salute and, turning, walked with
swaying stride out of sight behind the bungalow.

"By Jove, what a splendid beast!" exclaimed Frank. "And how wonderfully
well trained he is. I'm not surprised now that you let the kiddies play
with him."

Mrs. Dermot smiled.

"You would be even less so if you knew his story," she said. "He is my
husband's private property now. The Government of India presented him to
Kevin. Now come back to the house and have tea. Oh, no, after your long
ride you'll prefer a whiskey and soda."

"I'd really rather have the tea, I think, Mrs. Dermot. I don't feel
thirsty up in this deliciously cool air. It's awful down in the Plains
now. But what about my elephants and baggage?"

"Tell the _mahouts_ to go to the Mess. You are to have a room there."

Frank did so; and the two animals lumbered away up the hill after the
_mahouts_ had brought the Colonel's guns into the bungalow.

Mrs. Dermot led the way into the house. The little boy had possessed
himself of Wargrave's free hand, the other one being engaged in holding
Eileen, who was perched on the subaltern's shoulder. Mrs. Dermot found
it difficult to separate the children from their new friend when at
last she bore them off to bed.

Left to himself, Frank examined with deep interest and admiring envy the
splendid display of Colonel Dermot's trophies of big game shooting that
filled the bungalow. From the walls many heads of bison and buffalo, of
_sambhur_ and _barasingh_, those fine Indian stags, looked mildly at him
with their glass eyes; while tigers, bears and panthers snarled at him
from the ground. Long elephant-tusks leaned in corners, smoking and
liqueur-tables made up from the mammoths' legs and feet stood about, and
crossed from ceiling to floor; on the walls were the skins of enormous
snakes such as Frank had never seen or imagined. He had thought a
six-foot cobra or an eight-foot python long--here were reptiles sixteen
or eighteen feet in length, and he hoped that he would never meet their
equals alive in the jungle.

While he was gazing with admiration at the fine collection of trophies
Mrs. Dermot returned.

"What a magnificent lot of heads and skins you've got here!" he
exclaimed. "All your husband's, I suppose?"

She laughed as she glan