abited and cultivated country, and indeed fairly
near the _Jong_ (castle) of our enemy the Penlop of Tuna."

The wild elephants were feeding all around, paying no heed to them. The
Colonel turned to Badshah and pointing to the ground said one word:

"_Raho_! (Remain!)"

Then he continued to Wargrave:

"We'll find them, or they'll find us, whenever we return."

An hour later two elderly lamas in soiled yellow robes and horn-rimmed
spectacles, followed by a lame coolie carrying their scanty possessions,
emerged, rosary and praying-wheel in hand, from the forest into the
cultivated country.

For some weeks they wandered unsuspected through the Tuna Penlop's
dominions and even penetrated into his own _jong_, where they were
entertained and their prayers solicited by his cut-throat retainers.
They learned enough to realise that the _Amban_ was endeavouring by the
free supply of arms and military instructors to form here the nucleus of
a trained force to be employed eventually against India, backed up by
reinforcements of Chinese troops and contingents from other parts of
Bhutan.

Their investigations completed they returned safely to the forest in
which they had left the herd; and, much to Wargrave's relief, they had
not been many hours camped on the spot where they had parted with them
when Badshah and his wild companions appeared. The spies returned to
India as they had come, unseen and unsuspected.

This excursion was but the first of many that Wargrave made with the
Colonel and the herd; and he soon began to know almost every member of
it and make friends, not only with the solemn but friendly little
calves, but even with their less trusting mothers. He was now thoroughly
at home in the jungle and no longer needed a tutor in sport. His one
room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with
the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had
not secured a second bison, several good heads of _sambhur_, _khakur_
and _cheetul_, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls.

Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the
months slipping by. From Raymond he learned that Violet had returned to
Rohar before she wrote herself. When she did she seemed to be in a
brighter and more affectionate, as well as calmer, mood than she had
been before her visit to Poona. But gradually her letters became less
and less frequent; and Frank began to wonder--wit