"Then I've heard of you. I understand now. They said that you could do wonderful things with wild elephants, that you went about the forest with a herd of them."
"They said?" he exclaimed. "Who are 'they'?"
"The men at the club. We have a planters' club for the district, you know. At our last weekly meeting they spoke of you and said that you had nearly been killed by a rogue. Mr. Payne told us that he used to know you."
"What? Payne of Salchini? I knew him well. Awfully good chap."
"Yes, isn't he? I like him so much."
"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."
"Here comes somebody in a hurry," remarked Dermot, pointing to where, on the road ahead of them, a man on a pony was galloping towards them with a cloud of dust rising behind him.
"Yes, it's my brother. Oh, what's happening?" she exclaimed.