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Updated: May 11, 2025
And when he got back safely to his own hamlet that night the native added freely to the legends that were gathering around Dermot's name among the jungle and hill-dwellers. On one occasion Dermot, seated on Badshah's neck, was following in rear of the herd when it was moving slowly through the forest a few miles from the foot of the hills.
Mounted on Badshah's neck he ascended the steep hills elephants are excellent climbers and explored every known duar and defile. At the same time he kept a keen look-out for messengers passing between disloyal elements inside the Indian frontier and possible enemies beyond it.
I was coming to tell you I wonder do you know that your babies I suppose they are yours are playing what seems to me rather a dangerous game with an elephant at the side of the house." Mrs. Dermot smiled; and the dimples that came with the smile carried his mind back for an instant to Violet. "Yes, they are my chicks," she said. "I left them in Badshah's charge."
Dismissing the post orderly, who was still waiting, Dermot threw himself into a long chair and took up the letters that he had flung down when Badshah's screams attracted his attention. They were all routine official correspondence contained in the usual long envelopes marked "On His Majesty's Service."
But the remembrance of Badshah's peril from a better-armed antagonist for the possession of two tusks gave the rogue a great advantage nerved him. Holding on to the tree he dragged himself up and looked around for his rifle. He could not see it, and he dared not cross the arena in which the two huge combatants were fighting.
Dismounting, they sat on the ground and ate and drank the contents of the pockets of Badshah's pad, but with loaded rifles beside them lest their meal should be disturbed by any dangerous denizen of the jungle.
There was no doubt of it; he had made a fresh discovery. He turned round on Badshah's neck and looked down on all India spread out beneath him. East and west along the foot of the mountains the sea of foliage of the Terai swept away out of sight. Here and there lighter patches of colour showed where tea-gardens dotted the darker forest.
When they had done so from a safe distance, he turned Badshah, and, to Noreen's surprise, sped off swiftly in the opposite direction. Suddenly the girl touched his arm quietly. "Look! I see a wild elephant. There's another! And another!" she whispered. "Yes; I've come in search of them," he replied in his ordinary tone. "It's Badshah's herd." "Is it really? How wonderful!
"Oh, what about all these other elephants?" asked the girl apprehensively, looking at them where they were grouped together, gazing with curiosity at Badshah's passengers. "Will they come too?" "No," said Dermot reassuringly, "you needn't be afraid. They won't follow. We'd create rather too much of a sensation if we arrived at your bungalow at the head of a hundred hathis."
As he was borne swiftly along, his rider felt that, although the elephant had allowed him to mount to his accustomed place, it would resent any attempts at restraint or guidance. But indeed Dermot had no wish to control it. He was filled with an immense desire to learn the mystery of Badshah's frequent disappearances.
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