all the odds and ends, to carry off to the great elephant, standing
just then in the best bit of shade he could find, flapping his great
ears about, blinking his little pig's eyes, and turning his trunk and
his tail into two pendulums, swinging them backwards and forwards as
regular as clockwork, and all the time watching Harry, when Measles says
all at once, "Here come some lunatics!"

STORY ONE, CHAPTER THREE.

Now, after what I've told you about Measles' listing for spite, you will
easily understand that the fact of his calling any one a lunatic did not
prove a want of common reason in the person spoken about; but what he
meant was, that the people coming up were half-mad for travelling when
the sun was so high, and had got so much power.

I looked up and saw, about a mile off, coming over the long straight
level plain, what seemed to be an elephant, and a man or two on
horseback; and before I had been looking above a minute, I saw Captain
Dyer cross over to the colonel's tent, and then point in the direction
of the coming elephant. The next minute, he crossed over to where we
were. "Seen Lieutenant Leigh?" he says in his quick way.

"No, sir; not since breakfast."

"Send him after me, if he comes in sight. Tell him Miss Ross and party
are yonder, and I've ridden on to meet them."

The next minute he had gone, taken a horse from a sycee, and in spite of
the heat, cantered off to meet the party with the elephant, the air
being that clear that I could see him go right up, turn his horse round,
and ride gently back by the side.

I did not see anything of the lieutenant and, to tell the truth, I
forgot all about him, for I was thinking about the party coming, for I
had somehow heard a little about Mrs Maine's sister coming out from the
old country to stay with her. If I recollect right, the black nurse
told Mrs Bantem, and she mentioned it. This party, then, I supposed
contained the lady herself; and it was as I thought. We had had to
leave Patna unexpectedly to relieve the regiment ordered home; and the
lady, according to orders, had followed us, for this was only our second
day's march.

I suppose it was my pipe made me settle down to watch the coming party,
and wonder what sort of a body Miss Ross would be, and whether anything
like her sister. Then I wondered who would marry her, for, as you know,
ladies are not very long out in India without picking up a husband.
"Perhaps," I said to myself, "it