The Jungle Girl

ymond started and Frank stared

the Military Police, si

lips and, working himself

transferred from this station. You can ask yourself the reason why. I will not toler

lushed

't understand. I really don't

onel burst

what he's done"; and the speaker pounded on the desk with his clenched fist, working hi

, clenching his hands until the nails were almost d

have discussed the matter with my Second in Command, and he agrees with me. You can go. Raymond, make out the necessary warrants for Mr. War

punctiliously and, turning about smartly walked out of the Orderly Room. In the glaring sunshine he strode out of the compound and down the white, dusty road to

r. His "boy" approached salaaming and asked if he should go to the Mess to or

have an officer like you under my command." What was the meaning of it all? What had he done? A pang shot through him at the sudden remembrance of Colonel Trevor's assertion that Major Hepburn agreed with him. Frank held the

him about her and Mrs. Trevor's spiteful remarks flashed across his mind. Could Violet be mixed up in all this? Was his friendshi

y. It was Raymond. Wargrave

it all about, Ray?" he c

ff his helmet and f

devil have I done?" sai

ed to speak

s it?" cried Wargra

utant b

shame, old ma

is it, I say?" cried

ead towards the big photo

. Norton,

s friend. "What the-what

ew himself

een told that there might be a scandal so he'

h of shade at the side of the house, the syce squatting on the ground at its head and holding the reins. Wargrave sprang into the sad

his panting pony on its haunches and dismounting t

the hall do

i h

back of the hall sprang up

i? (Is the m

, sir)" said the

the drawing-room. After the blinding glare outside the closely-shuttered apartment seemed so dark that at first it was difficu

to be in!" exclaimed a laughing voice; and Mrs. Norton, looking radiant a

nt to

ng me away, Vi

epeated in an astonished

on. I mean-yes, they're sending me away from Rohar

er face as she stared u

u away? Why

e we're friends

she echoed. "What do you

't help it. I'

th Violet s

go? To l

she threw her arms abo

can't live without you. I love you. I

save her from pain, to console her, to brighten her lonely life, had brought this fresh sorrow on her. To the misery of a loveless marriage he had added a heavier cross, an unhappy, a misplaced affection. No exultant vanity within him rejoiced at the knowledge that, unsought, she had learned to care for him. Only regret, pity for her, stirred in him. He was aware now as always tha

together. You must co

and looked wi

What do you me

ppier one-together. I cannot leave you here with a man who negle

un away with y

the only t

lasp of him and release

and at all. Why are

pened. His face flushed darkly a

d. He treated me like a criminal. I don't value his opinion much

lace they're sending

't know. Eastern B

? Anywhere ne

frontier. Otherwise they wouldn't

e? Is it a big stat

; it must be a small place up in the hills or

with your being sent ther

chief," he replied. "Those two vile-minded women

out you and me? O

m, the Great Lady of their little world. Had dared to? She could not silence them. And what would they say of her, how their tongu

to this place in Bengal? Wh

live wi

ere?" she continued. "I haven't any money. I don't suppose

was heavily in debt. The local shroffs-the native money-lenders-would give him no more credit when they knew that he was going away. All that he would have would be the one month's advance of pay-probably not enough

irst to recover

d. "One of the servants may come in. Or my

housed its Political Officer in Rohar much more luxuriously than the milita

ut like a tiger in a cage and

t of an immediate flight involving the abdication of her assured social position and the surrender of a home, she was able to visualise the consequences of her actions. The most sobering reflection was the thought that by so doing she would be cas

r her travelling expenses, the difficulty of getting off together from this out-of-the-way station, were not to be got over. Then the impossibility of knowing whether she could remain with him when he was on frontier duty and of supporting her a

t Viol

or me than for you. You at least will not have to live with anyone

save all that he could to pay off his debts-he would receive a higher salary in the Military Police and his expenses would be less-and when he was free and had made a home for her Violet would sacrifice everything for love and come to him. With almost tears in his eyes as he thought of her no

nting it, galloped madly back to his bungalow, his heart torn with anguish

waiting to see him. He had intended to avoid them, for he felt disgraced by the Colonel's censure which it was evident the Commanding Officer had not kept secret, though the whole matter should have been treated as confidential. But they made ligh

ative conveyance drawn by a pair of ponies-to a village called Basedi on the shores of a narrow gulf or deep inlet of the sea which formed the eastern boundary of the State of Mandha. Here he

od, not because he considered that the latter had done anything to disgrace him. Hepburn added that if he was given command of the regiment in two years' time-as should happen in the ordinary course of events-he would be glad to have Wargrave back aga

icers in the Cantonment that did; for none of the others, not even senior major, Hepburn, left the Mess until it was time to escort their departing comrade to his bungalow to change for the journey. And, as the tong

ents were the stops every ten miles to change ponies, when he had to wait in the blazing sunshine. His "boy," who sat on the front seat of the vehicle besi

olled before him, while the never-ceasing clank of the iron-shod bar c

patient and brave in her self-denying endurance. And he cursed himself for having

hansamah-the custodian of the rest-home-hurried on to the verandah to greet the unexpected visitor and show his "boy" whe

n of sardines and sweet biscuits to eat with them, and a bottle of beer to wash it down with. Wargrave was too choked with dust, too sickened with the heat and glare, to have any appetite. After

nd only at its height could the launch approach the shore, which

hard for long hours of sitting. The heat was appalling. It struck up from the baked ground and seemed to scorch the body through the clothes. The glare from the white sand and even whiter patches of salt was blinding and penetrated through the closed eyelids. A hot wind blew over the hazy, shimmering desert, setting

ss sterile country; and the tram passed herds of black buck-the pretty, spiral-horned antelope. Used to its daily passage, the graceful animals, which were protected by the game-laws of the native State through which the line ran, barely

ed glass windows and Venetian wooden shutters meant to exclude the heat and glare. Over bare plains broken by sudden flat-topped rocky hills, through closely-cultivated fields and stretches of scrub-jungle, by mud-walled villages, he journeyed day and night.

urneyed through typical Bengal scenery by mud-banked rice-fields, groves of tall, feathery bamboos and hamlets of pretty palm-thatched huts, their roofs hidden by the broad green leaves of sprawling creepers. Soon across the sky to the north a dark, blurred line rose, stretching out of sight east and we

s belt of woodland that stretches for hundreds of miles along the foot of the Himalayas through Assam and Bengal to the far Siwalik range, clothing their lower slopes or scaling their steep sides into Nepal and Bhutan. Deep in its recesses the rhinoceros, bison and buffalo hide, herds of wi

r ears and shifting their weight restlessly from leg to leg. Frank, on getting out of his carriage, learned with pleasure from their salaaming mahouts (drivers) that these animals were to be his

ifle, the other a double-barrelled fowli

id one man, "the Burra Sahib (the Political Sahib) sends salaams an

kind of him, I'm sure," remarked

-Mut S

the vernacular "durro mut!" means, "Do not be

d that?" he aske

ve sahib," replied the man. "Whe

ut nodded asse

ess a basket with food and drink. I have put it on th

ss and made a welcome meal while he watched his

s "boy" mounted timorously when the luggage had been strapped on to the pad. When the subaltern was ready the second elephant was ordered

th a delicious feeling of excited hope that at any moment some dangerous wild beast might appear. On either hand the dense undergrowth of great, flower-covered bushes and curving fan-shaped palms, restricted

ed violently at every step of the elephant. At last they reached a clearing in the forest where stood the mahout's huts and a tall, wooden building, the peelkhana, or elephant stables. It lay at

ed, until far above him he caught glimpses of buildings dotted about among jungle-clad knolls and spurs jutting out from the dark face of the mountains. And at last as evening shadows began to lengthen they reached a lovely recess in the hills, a deep horse-shoe; and in it an artifi