"Strong? I don't feel strong." He leaned wearily back on his pillows. "I'm just trying to do what needs to be done to help us all survive. I can't let Margaret suffer any more than she—" His gaze flew to the door. "She's coming." He quickly moved his bishop and then looked up with a smile as Margaret walked into the room. "You've been very quick. I still haven't defeated him. Come here and let me see the seal."
She handed him Ruel's gold seal and stood beside him as he examined it. "I told you it was much better."
"It's quite splendid." Ian put it beside his own seal on the bed. He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. "But I prefer the one you made for me. Ruel may have his elephants. My stalk of heather reminds me of Glenclaren."
Chapter 19
Dilam came to meet them when they were only two miles from the encampment at the crossing. Jane was immediately alarmed. "What's wrong?"
Dilam smiled. "Nothing. The work goes well."
"Then why are you here?"
"Curiosity. I wondered . . ." Her gaze went to the baby elephant on the stretcher. "Ah, I see. Danor's?"
"Yes. The mother is dead. The baby will be, too, if we don't find a way to feed him."
"I think you will find such a way." She looked at Li Sung. "It was wise of you to send Danor on ahead."
"I sent that fiend nowhere," Li Sung said curtly.
"Ahead?" Jane asked, puzzled.
"You will see." Dilam turned her horse and led them toward the encampment. Fifteen minutes later they emerged from the jungle at the crossing.
"What the—" Jane reined in Bedelia, her eyes widening in shock.
Elephants! Hundreds of elephants—bulls, cows, babies—milling around the glade.
"Good heavens," she murmured weakly.
"They came at dawn," Dilam said. "We were startled."
"I can imagine."
Ruel's gaze searched the herd. "I don't see Danor."
"He is there." Li Sung pointed impatiently. "How can you miss him? With that tattered ear he stands out like Satan in a crowd of angels."
Dilam's brows lifted in surprise. "You are still fighting the makhol? You are even more stubborn than I thought."
"Makhol?" Jane asked.
"It's only foolishness," Li Sung said quickly. "The herd is here. Now, how are we going to rid ourselves of this baby and get on with our work?"
"Danor seems to have the situation under control so far. Why don't we see what he can do?" Ruel got down from his horse and unfastened the branches that formed the support for the stretcher. "Come on, Li Sung, let's pull the stretcher out into the middle of the herd and see what happens."
"What will happen is that we'll both be trampled by the beasts." Li Sung got off his horse. "At least, I will be trampled. You can run faster than me."
"I'll do it," Jane offered.
"No!" Li Sung said sharply. "It is my—" He stopped and shook his head. "Madness."
Jane wasn't sure he wasn't right as she watched Ruel and Li Sung each take one of the poles and drag the baby elephant into the center of the herd. The two men appeared pitifully small and weak surrounded by the huge beasts, and the elephants clearly didn't appreciate the intrusion.
The elephants were closing around them!
Her hands grasped nervously at her reins as the two men were suddenly lost to view.
"Be at ease," Dilam said softly. "Look, Danor."
Danor was edging forward, shouldering aside the other elephants until a narrow path was formed which allowed Li Sung and Ruel to slip through the herd.
Jane breathed a sigh of relief when the two men finally made it to the edge of the glade. "Caleb?"
"I don't know," Ruel said. "We'll have to see what happens. I saw at least four nursing cows among the herd, but they didn't seem very interested in adopting an orphan. Even if they'd stand still for it, I don't think the baby has the strength to get on his feet to nurse." He grimaced ruefully. "I may still have to go after the goats."
"I wish they'd move so I could see." Jane had a sudden horrible thought. "What if they step on him? He can't get up. They'll kill him!"
"Elephants usually take care of their own," Dilam said soothingly. "And Danor is there."
Jane's worried gaze searched the milling elephants. She couldn't see either Danor or the baby. "There are so many of them and . . ." Then a large bull blocking her vision wandered off toward the trees and she caught a glimpse of a small familiar figure in the center of the herd.
The baby was nursing!
Caleb was standing, suckling hungrily at the teat of a small gray-brown female. His legs were obviously wobbly, but he was supported by the trunks of Danor and another female elephant.
"It's going to be all right." Her face was alight with joy as she turned to Ruel. "He's going to live."
He smiled, his gaze lingering on her face. "And I don't have to turn goat tender after all. What a relief. I'm sure it would have been disastrous to my consequence."
"If we're through acting nursemaid to this elephant, maybe we can get back to work," Li Sung said. "We have track to lay while there's still light."
Dilam nodded. "We can complete another quarter of a mile before dusk." She turned to Ruel. "Tamar is at the encampment. He came with a message from James Medford."
Ruel frowned. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were busy. And this appeared of more importance."
"Elephants are always more important to her than humans," Li Sung said caustically.
"I'll go with you," Jane told Ruel. She turned to Li Sung. "I'll be with you as soon as we see what Medford has to say."
"I do not have to be guarded and nurtured like your precious elephant." He tore his gaze from Danor and the baby and got back on his horse. "I will see you back at camp at supper. If fortune is with us, all those elephants will have moved back where they came from by then."
"Something's wrong," Jane said as she saw Ruel's expression when he came toward her after speaking to Tamar. "Is it the railroad? Does Medford have a problem?"
"No, but we may have more problems than we can handle. Medford just got a message from Pickering. The maharajah is dead."
"No! So soon?"
"Pickering suspects Abdar may have hastened his demise, but it's not wise to suggest that possibility with Abdar in power."
"He'll start for here immediately?"
Ruel shook his head. "There's a three-month period of mourning before Abdar ascends the throne. Until that time he has no more power than he had before. We may even have a month or two grace after that before he turns his attention in our direction, but we can't count on it."
"Three months," Jane muttered. "I can't possibly complete the line in that time."
"It's got to be done in two," Ruel said flatly. "I'll need the extra month for shipping the gold and fortifying the harbor."
"Impossible."
"It's got to be done. Medford's almost finished his portion of the line. I'll set him to laying the track down the canyon trail." He frowned in concentration. "And I'll close down the mine and transfer the workers to the railroad and supervise that crew myself. Will that make it possible?"