t the subaltern suspected that it concealed a
deeper, warmer feeling. He betrayed no jealousy of Frank's constant
companionship with her when she took part in his studies; and his
friendly regard for his younger brother officer never altered. On her
side the girl showed openly that she shared the universal liking that
the kindly, pleasant-natured doctor inspired.

The weary months of the rainy season dragged by; but the subaltern spent
them to advantage under Colonel Dermot's tuition and, possessing the
knack of readily acquiring foreign languages, made rapid progress with
Bhutanese, Tibetan and the frontier dialects, his good ear for music
helping him greatly in getting the correct accent. Another
accomplishment of his, a talent for acting, was of service; for the
Political Officer wished him to be capable of penetrating into Bhutan in
disguise if need be. So he taught him how to be a merchant, peasant,
nobleman's retainer or a lama Red or Yellow, of the country--but always
a man of Northern Bhutan and the Tibetan borderland, for his height and
blue eyes were not unusual there, though seldom or never seen in the
south. Frank was carefully instructed in the appropriate manners,
customs and expressions of each part that he played, how to eat and
behave in company, how to walk, sit and sleep. But he specialised as a
lama, for in that character he would meet with the least interference in
the priest-ridden country. He was taught the Buddhist chants and how to
drone them, how to carry his praying-wheel and finger a rosary to the
murmured "_Om mani padmi hung_" of the Tibetans, and--for he was
something of an artist--how to paint the Buddhist pictorial Wheel of
Life, the _Sid-pa-i Khor-lo_ or Cycle of Existence that the gentle
Gautama, the Buddha, himself first drew and that hangs in the vestibule
of every lamasery to teach priest and layman the leading law of their
religion, Re-birth.

Colonel Dermot was helped in his instruction of his pupil by his chief
spy and confidential messenger, an ex-monk from a great monastery in
Punaka, the capital of Bhutan. This man, Tashi, before he wearied of the
cloistered life and fled to India, had been always one of the principal
actors in the great miracle plays and Devil Dances of his lamasery, for
he was gifted with considerable histrionic talent. He delighted in
teaching Wargrave to play his various _roles_, for he found the
subaltern an apt pupil.

As soon as the rains ended the P