n was so thoroughly satisfied with
herself that it never occurred to her that any one whom she honoured with
her liking could do aught but be devoted to her in return. And against the
granite of her self-sufficiency the iron of the girl's proud anger broke
until at length, baffled by the other's conceit, Noreen drifted back into
the semblance of her former friendliness. And Ida never remarked any
difference.

A hundred miles away Dermot roamed the hills and forest again. The
interdict of the Rains was lifted, and the game was afoot once more.

The portents of the coming storm were intensified. Much that the Divisional
Commander, General Heyland, had revealed to him in their confidential
interviews at Darjeeling was being corroborated by happenings in other
parts of the Peninsula, in Afghanistan, in China, and elsewhere. Signs were
not wanting on the border that Dermot had to guard. Messengers crossing and
re-crossing the Bhutan frontier were increasing in numbers and frequency;
and he had at length succeeded in tracking some of them to a destination
that first gave him a clue to the seat and identity of the organisers of
the conspiracy in Bengal.

For one or two Bhutanese had been traced to the capital of the Native State
of Lalpuri, and others, having got into Indian territory, had been met by
Hindus who were subsequently followed to the same ill-famed town. But once
inside the maze of its bazaars their trail was hopelessly lost. It was
useless to appeal to the authorities of the State. Their reputation and the
character of their ruler were so bad that it was highly probable that the
Rajah and all his counsellors were implicated in the plot. But how to bring
it home to them Dermot did not know. By his secret instructions several of
the messengers to and from Bhutan were the victims of apparent highway
robbery in the hills. But no search of them revealed anything compromising,
no treasonable correspondence between enemies within and without. The men
would not speak, and he could not sanction the proposals made to him by
which they should be induced so to do.

The planters began to report to him a marked increase in the mutinous
spirit exhibited by their coolies; arms were found in the possession of
these men, and there was reason to fear a combined rising of the labourers
on all the estates of the Duars. Dermot advised Rice to send his wife to
England, but the lady showed no desire to return to her loudly-regretted
L