"No, no; I mean what is your sport—fishing, hunting, golf, polo?" "To tell the truth," acknowledged Aurelle, "I am not much good at sport. I am not very strong and——" "I’m sorry to hear that," said the major, but he turned to his other neighbour and bothered no more about the Frenchman. Aurelle was thrown back on the Veterinary Captain Clarke sitting on his left, who had up to then been eating and drinking without saying a word. "It rains a lot in your country," said Captain Clarke. "So it does in England," said Aurelle. "I intend," said Clarke, "when this damned war is over to go back to Santa Lucia." Aurelle asked if the captain’s family lived in the Antilles. He was horrified. "Oh, no! I belong to a Staffordshire family. I went out there quite by chance; I was travelling for pleasure and my boat touched at Santa Lucia; I found the heat very agreeable and I stayed there. I bought some land very cheap and I grow cocoa." "And it does not bore you?" "No, the nearest white man is six miles off, and the coast of the island is excellent for sailing. What more could I do at home? When I go to England for three months’ holiday, I spend a week at my old home, then I go off in a yacht alone. I have been all round your Brittany coast; it is delightful because the currents are so difficult and your charts are so good; but it is not warm enough. At Santa Lucia I can smoke cigarettes in my pyjamas on my veranda." He slowly swallowed his port and concluded: "No, I don’t like Europe—too much work. But, out there, there is enough food for everybody." The colonel at the other end of the table was holding forth about India, the white ponies of his regiment, the native servants with their complicated names and varied duties, and the lax life in the Hills. Parker described hunting on an elephant. "You stand up on your animal firmly tied on by one leg, and when the elephant gallops you fly into space: it’s really most exciting." "I’ll take your word for it," said Aurelle. "Yes, but if you try it," said the colonel solicitously to Aurelle, "don’t forget to slide off by the tail as quickly as you can if the elephant comes to marshy ground. His instinct, when the ground gives way beneath him, is to seize you in his trunk and put you down in front of him to have something solid to kneel on." "I’ll remember, sir," said Aurelle. "In the Malay States," said the major of Engineers, "the wild elephants wander about the main roads. I often met them when I was on my motor-bike; if your face or your clothes annoy them they pick you off and smash your head by treading on it. But except for that they are quite inoffensive." A long discussion on the most vulnerable part of an elephant followed. The padre showed his knowledge by explaining how the anatomy of the Indian elephant differed from that of the African species. "Padre," said Aurelle, "I always knew you were a sportsman; but have you ever really done any big game shooting?"