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"For this one a receipt is needed," continued the sepoy, holding out a long official envelope registered and insured and addressed, like all the others, to "The Officer Commanding, Ranga Duar, Eastern Bengal." Major Dermot signed the receipt and handed it to the man. As he did so the scream of an elephant in pain came to his ears. "What is that?" he asked the post orderly.
But, as the latter was a double tusker, it's not a very likely tale." "They've got a still more wonderful story about that fellow in Ranga Duar," remarked a planter named Lulworth. "They say he can do anything with wild elephants, goes about the jungle with a herd and they obey him like a pack of hounds." The men near him laughed. "Good old Lulworth!" said one. "That beats Goddard's yarn.
"I saw a lot of him when I was stationed at Buxa Duar with my Double Company. Hullo! here we are at a tea-garden." They had suddenly come out of the forest on to the open stretch of furrowed land planted with the orderly rows of tidy bushes. "Yes; it is ours. It's called Malpura," said Noreen. "My brother is the assistant manager. Our name is Daleham."
He sprang up as a tall man with handsome, clear-cut features, dark complexion and eyes, and close-cropped black hair touched at the temples with grey, entered the room. With a pleasant smile the newcomer walked towards the subaltern with outstretched hand, saying in a friendly voice: "Glad to welcome you to Ranga Duar, Wargrave."
"I shall be afraid to leave the bungalow." "I heard that the fellow commanding the Military Police detachment at Ranga Duar was nearly killed by a rogue lately," remarked an engineer named Goddard. "Our mahout had the story from one of the mahouts of the Fort. He had a cock-and-bull yarn about the sahib being saved by his tame elephant, a single-tusker, which drove off the rogue.
Then he and Wargrave on Badshah made for the road to Ranga Duar. It was dark long before they reached the little station. The Colonel brought his companion in for a drink after the three thousand feet climb, most of which they had done on foot. Mrs. Dermot met them in the hall; and, after she had heard the result of the day's sport, warmly congratulated Wargrave on his good luck.
When during tiffin he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said: "Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out and show me the place and the shops and the Gymkhana what do you call it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other, the jungle girl, where is she?"
"'Major Dermot, at present commanding the detachment of the Military Battalion stationed at Ranga Duar, has been specially selected, on account of his acquaintance with the districts and dialects of the duars and that part of the Terai Forest bordering on Bhutan, to carry out a particular mission.
But the subaltern did not receive it until more than a week afterwards, when he returned to Ranga Duar with Tashi after chasing back across the Border a mongrel pack of dácoits brigands who had been harrying Bhuttia villages in British territory.
And she wrote the letter that Dermot read in his bungalow in Ranga Duar while the storm shook the hills. The girl counted the days, the hours, until she could hope for an answer. Would he reply at once, she wondered. She knew that, even shut up in his little station, he had much work to occupy him. He could not spare time, perhaps, for a letter to a silly girl.
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