No one that knows the jungle well will refuse to credit the strangest story of what wild animals will do. Of all the swarming herds of wild elephants in the Terai, the Mysore, or the Ceylon jungles no man, white or black, has ever seen one that had died a natural death. Yet many have watched them climbing up the great mountain rampart of the Himalayas towards regions where human foot never followed. The Death Place of the Elephants is a legend in which all jungle races firmly believe, but no man has ever found it. The mammoths live a century and a half--but the time comes when each of them must die. Yet no human eye watches its death agony. Those who know elephants best will most readily credit the strangest tales of their doings. And there are men--white men--whose power over wild beasts and wilder fellow men outstrips the novelist's imagination, the true tale of whose doings no resident in a civilised land would believe. GORDON CASSERLY. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.--THE SECRET MISSION 3 II.--A ROGUE ELEPHANT 20 III.--A GIRL OF THE TERAI 35 IV.--THE MADNESS OF BADSHAH 59 V.--THE DEATH-PLACE 79 VI.--A DRAMATIC INTRODUCTION 95 VII.--IN THE RAJAH'S PALACE 117 VIII.--A BHUTTIA RAID 137 IX.--THE RESCUE OF NOREEN 155 X.--A STRANGE HOME-COMING 175 XI.--THE MAKING OF A GOD 193 XII.--THE LURE OF THE HILLS 213 XIII.--THE PLEASURE COLONY 231 XIV.--THE TANGLED SKEIN OF LOVE 248 XV.--THE FEAST OF THE GODDESS KALI 267 XVI.--THE PALACE OF DEATH 286 XVII.--A TRAP 309 XVIII.--THE CAT AND THE TIGER 330 XIX.--TEMPEST 351 XX.--THE GOD OF THE ELEPHANTS 377 THE ELEPHANT GOD CHAPTER I THE SECRET MISSION "The letters, sahib," said the post orderly, blocking up the doorway of the bungalow. Kevin Dermot put down his book as the speaker, a Punjaubi Mohammedan in white undress, slipped off his loose native shoes and entered the room barefoot, as is the custom in India. "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. "It is the _mahout_, Chand Khan, beating his _hathi_ (elephant), sahib," replied the sepoy looking out.