During tiffin Fred Daleham called out from the far end of the table:
"I say, Payne, I wish you'd convince that young sister of mine that wild elephants can be dangerous beasts."
"They can indeed," replied Payne, turning to Noreen. "Take my advice and keep out of their way."
"Oh, but isn't it only rogues that one need be afraid of?" the girl asked. "And aren't they rare?"
"These jungles are full of them, Miss Daleham," said another planter. "We've had two men on our garden killed already this year."
"The Forest Officer told me that several guards and wood-cutters have been attacked lately," joined in another. "One brute has held up the jungles around Mendabari for months."
"Oh, don't tell us any more, Mr. Lane," cried Mrs. Rice with affected timidity. "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. 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.