ouple of brilliantly green-and-gold,
long-tailed paroquets suddenly flashed into sight as if about to alight,
but, startled by the elephant, they flew off with sharp screams.

And now time after time large, wide-winged, diurnal moths and glistening
butterflies flew up from where they had settled on the dew-drenched
herbage and fluttered before them. Not far onward a flock of finches
flew from the tops of the green banks, twittering loudly as they
displayed the brilliance of the blue and yellow and green of their
plumage and its varying shades. But this was only for a time. The
jungle growth rose higher on either side till it shut out the sunshine,
and once more the elephant-path wore the aspect of a deep, shadowy
tunnel, while the air grew more moist and steamy, seeming stagnant to a
degree.

"All right, sir?" cried Peter, straining to look round.

"Yes, yes, Pete. My fall shook me a bit, and seemed to bring back the
old aching in my head. But don't mind me. I feel quite happy now that
we are getting farther and farther from our prison. We are free, and if
I could only feel that we were going in the right direction I should not
care."

"Oh, don't care, sir; don't care a bit. It's chance it--chance it. Old
Rajah's taking us somewhere, and why shouldn't it be to headquarters?"

"It's not likely, Pete."

"Very well, sir. Then I will have another go. What do you say to its
being to the Rajah's palace? I don't know where it is--only that it is
somewhere in the jungle, not very far from the river. You've never been
there, have you?"

"No, Pete, I haven't. But, as you say, it is not far from the river."

"Well, sir, we can't be far from the river. It must be somewhere off to
our right flank, and old Rajah here must know his way, or else he
wouldn't be going so steadily on; and the beauty of these places is that
when once you are on the right road you can't miss your way, because
there ain't no turning."

"But we passed one turning to the right."

"Yes, sir. That's where the helephants went down to drink, and you see
if we don't come to another farther on. But this is splendid
travelling. How he does get over the ground! And if it warn't for the
commissariat department one could go on day after day, just making a
halt now and then for this chap to take in half a load of growing hay
and suck in a tubful of water, and then go on again."

"Hush! Don't talk so, Pete."

"Why not, sir? I am doing i