to him. And it haunted
him in his sleep when in dreams tiny arms were clasped around his neck
and baby lips touched his lovingly.

CHAPTER VIII

A GIRL OF THE FOREST

From the frontier of Bhutan, six thousand feet up on the face of the
mountains, a line of men wound down the serpentining track that led to
Ranga Duar. At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery
Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, _kimono_-shaped and
kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees--the legs
and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the _Deb Zimpun_, the
Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan. Behind him came a tall
man in khaki tunic, breeches, puttees and cap, his breast covered with
bright-coloured ribbons. His uniform was similar to the British; but his
face was unmistakeably Chinese, as were those of the twenty tall,
khaki-clad soldiers armed with magazine rifles at his heels. They were
followed by three or four score Bhutanese swordsmen, thick-set and not
unlike Gurkhas in feature, with bare heads, legs and feet, and clad only
in a single garment similar to their leader's and kilted up by a cord
around the waist, from which hung a _dah_, a short sword or long knife.
In rear of them trudged a number of coolies, some laden with bundles,
others with baskets of fruit.

Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the
small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the _Deb Zimpun_
pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand
feet below them and hitherto invisible to them.

"That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked
down at it.

"It seems a very small and weak place to have stopped our invading
troops in the war," he said in Bhutanese. "So here lives the Man."

"The Man? Yes, perhaps he is a man. But many, very many, there be that
think him a god or devil. They say he can call up a horde of demons in
the form of elephants. With such he trampled your army into the earth.

"Devils? Leave such tales to lamas and the ignorant fools that believe
their teaching. But if even a part of what I have heard about this man
be true he is more dangerous than many devils. He stands in China's way,
and he who does shall be swept aside."

"He is my friend," said the _Deb Zimpun_ shortly, and tramped on in
silence.

Before they reached the station they were met by two of the Political
Officer's men, Bhuttia