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Updated: June 22, 2025
"A fire broke out in the jungle at the south edge of the garden probably started purposely to draw everyone away from the bungalows and factory. The manager, Daleham, and I went there to superintend the men fighting the flames. In our absence a party of ten or twenty Bhuttia swordsmen rushed the house. Miss Daleham had just returned from her ride. Poor girl!" He broke down and began to cry.
But the heavy curtain dividing it from the drawing-room was dragged aside and Daleham appeared in the doorway, outlined against the faint light of a turned-down lamp. Behind him Noreen was rising from a chair. "Who's there?" cried the boy, raising a revolver. "It's all right, Daleham. It's I, Dermot. I'm alone, I'm sorry to say." A stifled cry burst from the girl.
But Daleham's animal was unused to elephants and positively refused to approach Badshah. In vain its rider strove to make it go on. It suddenly put an end to the dispute between them by swinging round and bolting back the way that it had come, despite its master's efforts to hold it. Noreen looked after the pair anxiously. "You needn't be alarmed, Miss Daleham," said Dermot consolingly.
"All right, only twenty-two, come back with three hits on you and your elephant up to his eyes in blood and and well, hang it all, Major, let's have some more details." "Come, Miss Daleham," Payne broke in, "you tell us what happened. I know Dermot, and we won't get any more out of him." "Yes; let's hear all about it, Noreen," said her brother. "I'm sure it wasn't as tame as the Major says."
But in those golden days in the mountains, Noreen Daleham was happy, happier far than she had ever been; albeit she did not realise that love was the magician that made her so. She only felt that the world was a very delightful place and that the lonely outpost the most attractive spot in it. Even when the day came to quit Ranga Duar she was not depressed.
So Dermot was with her when a sudden uproar outside caused him to dash out on to the verandah. From behind the barricade on the front verandah Daleham was watching. "What is it? Are they attacking?" cried the soldier. "No. It's not an attack. They're cheering somebody, I think, and firing into the air." Dermot stared out.
Volley after volley of shots were fired, conch-shells blown, tom-toms beaten. "Yes, there's no doubt of it. It must be that fat brute," said Daleham. Half an hour went by. The sun was high in the heavens. The landscape was bare of life. Not a man was visible. But presently from the village came a little figure, a naked little coolie boy.
He explained the reason of the reverence paid to Badshah. Daleham, returning, renewed his thanks as his sister went into the bungalow to see about breakfast. When she returned to tell them that it was ready, Dermot hardly recognised in the dainty girl, clad in a cool muslin dress, the terrified and dishevelled damsel whom he had first seen standing in the midst of the elephants.
At various points of the homeward journey members of the party went off down tracks leading in the direction of their respective gardens, and there was but a small remnant left when Dermot said good-bye, after hearty thanks from Daleham and cheery farewells from the others. He did not reach the Fort until the following day.
When I came up to them, as Miss Daleham has just told you, they all ran away except two." "What did these two do?" asked Granger, his host of the previous night. "Not much. They tried to stand their ground, but didn't really give much trouble. So I took Miss Daleham up on my elephant and we started back.
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