"Possible but not probable. The jungle is much denser ahead. It will need extensive clearing along the track."
"I'll recruit more help from the Cinnidar village."
"It still may not be enough."
"I need this done, Jane. I could lose everything I've worked for all these years." He gazed directly into her eyes. "I need your help. Will you give it to me?"
She had never thought he would ask her for anything. He had always demanded, not asked, but he wasn't demanding now. Nor was he trying to use that mesmerizing charm that was his most potent weapon. He had stated his need simply and honestly. He loved this island. It was home to him. She felt an odd surge of fierce protectiveness as she looked at him. Dammit, she would not let Abdar either hurt him or take his home. "I'll see to it." She turned and moved toward the tent. "Come with me. We'll need to look at the map. There's a stretch of marshland just ahead that I was planning to go around. It's a nightmare finding firm ground to lay the track and working in all that mud, but we can cut seven miles off the final stretch if I go through it instead of around. That will help, won't it?"
"Seven miles will help a hell of a lot."
"Then you can take your crew and start laying the track beyond the marsh while Li Sung, Dilam, and I work our way through it. If we can—"
"Jane."
She looked at him. "Yes?"
He smiled, that rare beautiful smile. "Thank you."
The words were beautiful too, and filled her with a perilous happiness. She lifted the flap of the tent. "You're quite welcome." She made a face. "At the moment. I'm not sure I'll feel quite so magnanimous when we begin going through that marsh."
"Why do they not go away?" Li Sung said as he gazed in exasperation over his shoulder at the elephants standing in the trees. "It has been over a week now and they still try to follow behind us like tame dogs."
She smothered a smile. "Dilam says Danor likes you. Makhol."
He scowled. "She told you that foolishness?"
"Or perhaps he misses his mate."
"Then let him go court another one and leave me alone."
"I believe Dilam is right. Why else would Danor keep the herd nearby? And he watches you all the time."
"Maybe he is looking for an opportunity to smash me into the marsh." He grimaced. "Though I could not be much worse off. I've been mud from head to toe for the last three days."
"So have we all." Jane wearily wiped her brow as she gazed at the workers trying to keep their balance in the slippery mud beside the track. "Another mile and we'll be out of it." Her gaze wistfully shifted to the river a half-mile distant. "It will be good to wash the muck off this evening."
"That's five hours away." Li Sung turned and moved cautiously along the side of the rails, measuring the width of the track. "Let's hope we are out of this marsh by—what the—"
He lost his footing, his feet slid out from under him, and he fell to the ground. The next moment he was sliding helplessly down the slippery incline to splash into a mud-filled ditch.
He came to the surface, floundering, spitting a mixture of Chinese and English curses, completely encased in grainy yellow mud from head to toe.
"Are you hurt?" Jane called. The ground was soft, and she doubted if he had come to any harm. Dear heaven, she mustn't laugh. Li Sung would kill her if she laughed.
She couldn't help it. Heavens, he looked funny.
"Stop that snickering." Li Sung glared at her, his black eyes shining from his mud-coated face. He gazed at the Cinnidan laborers who had stopped working to grin at his dilemma. "And you too. It is not—no! Get him away from me!"
Danor had suddenly appeared and was lumbering down the slippery incline toward Li Sung.
Jane's amusement vanished. "Good God, what on earth is he doing?"
Danor wrapped his trunk around Li Sung and heaved him out of the ditch.
"Let me go, you armor-plated baboon," Li Sung spat out, struggling futilely in the elephant's grasp. He shouted. "Dilam!"
"I am here." Dilam beamed at him as she trotted down the track toward them.
"But you're not doing anything. You're supposed to know about elephants. Make him—"
"He will not hurt you." She frowned. "I do not think."
Danor turned and trotted up the embankment and off across the flat marsh, moving so quickly his heavy bulk did not have a chance to sink into the soft muddy ground.
"Jane!" Li Sung shouted. "Are you going to shoot this beast or not?"
Jane found herself laughing helplessly again. "He's not hurting you, is he? Surely you wouldn't want me to kill him for stinging your pride?"
"The hell I wouldn't." The words drifted back to her as Danor picked up speed. "Put me down!"
Jane could see where Danor was headed now, and she started after them at a run, her boots sinking into the muddy earth with every step. "Don't worry. I think he'll drop you soon."
"And then step on my head."
She was breathless with laughter as well as running. "No, I don't believe you'll have to worry about that."
Danor stopped at the bank of the river—and tossed Li Sung into the water.
Li Sung came up sputtering and cursing. Danor lumbered into the water, filled his trunk, and sprayed Li Sung in the face.
"He is trying to drown me."
"No." Jane gasped, tears pouring down her face. "I think he's trying to give you a bath."
"Stupid beast!" Li Sung hit the water with his hand, sending a spray at the elephant.
Danor promptly squirted him again.
"This is . . ." Li Sung looked at Jane and then at the elephant and suddenly his anger ebbed and his lips began to twitch. "Completely unfair." The smile became a chuckle. "I do not have a monstrous nose with which to gather water."
Danor's trunk wound around Li Sung's shoulders, moving gently up and down his body. It was almost a loving caress, Jane thought, like the way the elephant had touched his baby that night in the jungle.
Li Sung's expression became oddly arrested. He stood quite still, his head tilted as if listening to something. "All right, I forgive you," Li Sung said grudgingly. "But only because I needed the bath." He grimaced ruefully. "And the laughter. I feel better now." He turned and waded back to shore.
"So do I." Jane reached out a hand to help him up the bank. "It doesn't seem nearly so long until sundown now.
Li Sung looked back at the elephant, but Danor was now ignoring them, siphoning and spraying water on himself. "Selfish beast. Look at him enjoy himself. He does not have to labor from sunrise to sundown."
In spite of the content of the words, Jane noticed a lack of antagonism that was usually present in Li Sung's tone when he spoke of Danor. It was as if that moment in the lake had washed away more than the mud encasing her friend.
Li Sung frowned when he looked at Jane. "What are you smiling about now?"
She started across the marsh toward the track where Dilam stood waiting, a broad grin on her face. "Was I smiling?"
Danor was there again, standing in the shadows of the trees across the clearing.
Li Sung turned over on his side and pulled his blankets up to his neck, deliberately ignoring the elephant.