had been
wiser than he. Now, with an apologetic pat on the head, Dermot let him
follow the new path, wondering at the change of route, for it was only
natural to expect that the Bhuttias would have made for the hills by the
shortest way to the nearest pass into Bhutan. As the elephant moved along
his rider's eye was quick to recognise the traces of the passing of the
raiders, where no sign would have been visible to one unskilled in
tracking.

All at once Badshah slackened his pace and began to advance with the
caution of a tusker stalking an enemy. Confident in the animal's
extraordinary intelligence Dermot cocked his rifle. The elephant suddenly
turned off the path and moved noiselessly through the undergrowth for a few
minutes. Then he stopped on the edge of an open glade in the forest.

Scattered about in it, sitting or lying down half-asleep, were a number of
short, sturdy, brown-faced men with close cropped bare heads. Each was clad
in a single garment shaped like a Japanese _kimono_ and kilted up to expose
thick-calved, muscular bare legs by a girdle from which hung a _dah_--a
short, straight sword. A little apart from them sat Noreen Daleham in a
chair in which she was securely fastened and to which long carrying-poles
were tied. She was dressed in riding costume and wore a sun-helmet.

The girl was pale, weary, and dejected, and looked so frail and unfitted to
cope with so terrifying a situation that a feeling of immense tenderness
and an instinctive desire to protect her filled Dermot as he watched her.
Then passionate anger welled up in him as he turned his eyes again to her
captors; and he longed to make them pay dearly for the suffering that she
had endured.

But, despite his rage, he deliberated coolly enough on the best mode of
attack, as he counted the number of the raiders. There were twenty-two. The
soldier's quick eye instantly detected that one of them, although garbed
similarly to the rest, was in features unlike a Bhuttia and had not the
sturdy frame of a man of that race. He was wearing shoes and socks and was
the only one of the party not carrying a _dah_.

Dermot's first idea was to open fire suddenly on the raiders and continue
firing while moving about in cover from place to place on the edge of the
glade, so as to give the impression of a numerous force. But he feared that
harm might come to the girl in the fight if any of the Bhuttias carried
fire-arms, for they would probably fire wildl