ickly down
in a pile of the crushed leaves, burying his face in his hands, while
Archie began to walk slowly up and down, conscious the while, through
the shutting out of the morning light, that their guard had come up to
the side of their prison and looked in, before going back to the
sheltering tree, where he squatted down, to watch carelessly the coming
of the elephants, one of which made for the hole, and was in the act of
thrusting its trunk through, when it was charged by its big companion,
the Rajah, who uttered a fierce squeal and drove the intruder away,
before inserting his own trunk as usual, making no scruple about taking
his customary refreshment from Archie's hand, having during the past few
days grown accustomed to the subaltern's presence, and ending by giving
the lad a few of the friendly touches that he was in the habit of
bestowing upon Peter Pegg.

As soon as the elephant had gone, and after giving a glance at their
guard, Archie, who was burning to listen to what his fellow-prisoner had
to say, lay down beside him, under the impression that weariness had
kept him from rising to attend to the elephant's visit.

He found him so soundly asleep that he did not even respond to a sharp
shake of the arm which Archie gave him on receiving no reply to his
whispers; and then he had to contain himself till evening, when their
usual visitors came; and it was not till long after, when they were once
more alone, that the young private suddenly started up.

"Have I been asleep?" he said half-wonderingly.

"Asleep! Yes; and I want to know what you have found out."

"Let's have a drink and something to eat first. I feel half-starved."

"Yes, of course--of course. Go on."

"Now," said Peter, after a ravenous attack upon the bread and fruit.
"Oh, here, this is good! Only I think it's time we got some meat. I'd
give anything for a bit of commissariat bacon. You want to hear what I
did, sir. Well, it was next to nothing but crawl like a slug in and out
amongst trees, scratting one's self with that long, twining, climbing
palm, and not once daring to stand up and walk."

"Well, but what did you find out?"

"Nothing at all, sir, except that there's a bit of a lodge here which
seems as if it might belong to the Rajah, and be where he lived and
slept."

"And was he there?"

"Oh no, sir; there's nobody there, only about a dozen Malay chaps,
besides them as come to see us; and then there's a very big
hele