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Updated: June 22, 2025
He was on foot and was accompanied by two coolies carrying his elephant's pad. The girl was not surprised, although Fred Daleham was, at Badshah's appearance from the forest in response to a whistle from his master. And when, after a friendly farewell, man and animal disappeared in the jungle, Noreen was conscious of the fact that they had left a little ache in her heart.
His well-cut features and dark complexion had played havoc with the affections of shop-girls of a certain class and that debased type of young Englishwoman whose perverted and unnatural taste leads her to admire coloured men. In one of these boarding-houses he had met Daleham, when the latter was a clerk in the city.
"What a splendid beast!" she exclaimed. Dermot turned to her. "You kept your word well, Miss Daleham," he said. "I congratulate you on your pluck. The highest compliment I can pay you is to say that I forgot you were there. Not many men would have sat as quiet as you did when the cartridge missed fire and the brute sprang." The girl's eyes sparkled and she blushed. His praise was very dear to her.
From another he drew a linen bag and a tin canister. "You said that you would like tea, Miss Daleham," he remarked. "Well, you shall have some presently." "Yes; but how can you make it?" she asked. "There's no water in the jungle." "Plenty of it." "Are we near a stream, then?" "No; the water is all round us, waiting for me to draw it off." The girl looked about her. "What do you mean?
Chunerbutty rushed forward. He was evidently greatly agitated. "Oh, Major Dermot! Major Dermot! Help! Help!" he cried excitedly. "A terrible thing has happened. Miss Daleham has been carried off by a party of Bhuttia raiders." "Carried off? By Bhuttias?" exclaimed the soldier. "When?" He made the elephant kneel and slipped off to the ground. "Barely two hours ago," replied the engineer.
You see, it is very unusual to find such a man doing this sort of work." He did not enter into any further explanation. The suspicion that he entertained must for the present be kept to himself. When Daleham left them the girl felt curiously shy. Perfectly at her ease with men as a rule, she now, to her surprise, experienced a sensation of nervousness, a feeling almost akin to awe of her guest.
The girl felt that even her old friends were beginning at last to look askance at her; consequently she tried to avoid going to the weekly gatherings. It happened that on the occasion when Dermot, having arrived at Salchini on a visit to Payne, again made his appearance at the club, Daleham had insisted on his sister accompanying him there, much against her will.
Among the Europeans the questions showered on Dermot redoubled. "Look here, you fellows. I can't answer you all at once," he expostulated. "It's a long story. But please remember that Miss Daleham has had a tiring day and must be worn out." "Oh, no, I'm not," exclaimed the girl. "Not now. I was fatigued, but I'm too excited to rest yet."
"He's too drunk to feel any 'skeeter biting him." "I pity the mosquito that does," joined in a young planter laughing. "The poor insect would die of alcoholic poisoning." "I've given you my room, Major," said Daleham. "I know the other fellows won't mind." No persuasion, however, could make Dermot accept the offer. While the others slept in the bungalow, he lay under the stars beside his elephant.
They went reluctantly to the aid of the only other lady of their little community, who was apparently unable to climb down from her bamboo cart without help. Her husband and Daleham were already proferring their services, but they were seemingly insufficient. Mrs. Rice belonged to the type of woman altogether unsuited to the life of a planter's wife.
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