ht run short, found a plantain tree and gathered a quantity of the
fruit. After a frugal meal he wrote up his notes on the pass through which
he had just come and made rough military sketches of it. Then he strolled
among the elephants grazing near Badshah. They showed no fear or hostility
as he passed, and some of the calves evinced a certain amount of curiosity
in him. He even succeeded in making friends with one little animal about a
year old, marked with whitish blotches on its forehead and trunk, which
allowed him to touch it and, after due consideration, accepted the gift of
a peeled banana. Its mother stood by during the proceeding and regarded the
fraternising with her calf dubiously.

Not until dawn on the following day did the herd resume its onward
movement. Dermot was awake even before Badshah's trunk touched his face to
arouse him, and as soon as he was mounted the march began again. The route
lay through the new mountain range; and all day, except for a couple of
hours' halt at noon, the long line wound up a confusing jumble of ravines
and passes. When night fell a plateau covered with tall deodar trees had
been reached, and here the elephants rested.

Daybreak on the third morning found Badshah leading the line through a
still more bewildering maze of narrow defiles and a forest with such dense
foliage that, when the sun was high in the heavens, its rays scarcely
lightened the gloom between the tree-trunks. Dermot wondered how Badshah
found his way, for there was no sign of a track, but the elephant moved on
steadily and with an air of assured purpose.

At one place he plunged into a deep narrow ravine filled with tangled
undergrowth that constantly threatened to tear Dermot from his seat.
Indeed, only the continual employment of the latter's _kukri_, with which
he hacked at the throttling creepers and clutching thorny branches, saved
him.

Darker and gloomier grew the way. The sides of the _nullah_ closed in until
there was scarcely room for the animals to pass, and then Dermot found
Badshah had entered a natural tunnel in the mountain side. The interior was
as black as midnight, and the soldier had to lie flat on the elephant's
skull to save his own head.

Suddenly a blinding light made him close his eyes, as Badshah burst out of
the darkness of the tunnel into the dazzling glare of the sunshine.

When his rider looked again he found that they were in an almost circular
valley completely ringed in