whispered Muriel, "I'm happier dying with
you than living without you."

Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to
face the enemy. The swordsmen were massing for a charge. Crouching low
they held their shields before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_
above their heads, uttering fierce yells.

Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering out
of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking
down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind
and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a
charge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror
they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last
cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and
drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind.

Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge
from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them,
lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves
bringing up the rear. The onset of the mass of great monsters was
terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible.

Muriel cried out:

"It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?"

Tashi stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol
and put it away in the holster.

"We are saved, sahib," he said with the calm fatalism of the East. "The
God of the Elephants has sent them."

And he limped out from behind the rocks. The two Europeans followed him.
Their foes had disappeared, all but the dead and wounded.

Badshah--for it was he--swerved out of his course and came to them,
while the herd went on, opening out to pass him as he sank to his knees
before the humans. Tashi, despite his wound, climbed on to his neck,
while Wargrave mounted behind him and Muriel took her seat on the broad
back, clinging to her lover. Then the tusker rose and moved swiftly
after the herd.

As he rounded the bend a strange sight met the eyes of those he carried.
Their enemies were huddled together in terror near the brink of the
tunnel from which the surging water rushed out. Some endeavoured to
pluck up courage to throw themselves into the river, while the majority
had turned to face the elephants. But they were paralysed with fright. A
few tried to discharge their fire-arms or loosed their arrows with
trembling hands. As the eleph