A coolie woman,
who saw the raiders from a distance, ran to us and told us. Fred went mad,
of course. He wanted to follow the Bhuttias, but I pointed out that it was
hopeless."
"Hopeless? Why?"
"There were only three of us, and they were a large party," replied
Chunerbutty.
"Yes; but you had rifles and should have been a match for fifty."
The Bengali shrugged his shoulders.
"We did not know in which way they had gone," he said. "We could not track
them."
"I suppose not. Well?"
"Fred and Mr. Parry have ridden off in different directions to the
neighbouring gardens to summon help. We sent two coolies with a telegram to
you or any officer at Ranga Duar, to be sent from the telegraph office on
the Barwahi estate. Then you came."
Dermot observed him narrowly. He was always suspicious of the Hindu; but,
unless the engineer was a good actor, there was no doubt that he was
greatly affected by the outrage. His distress seemed absolutely genuine.
And certainly there seemed no reason for suspecting his complicity in the
carrying off of Miss Daleham. So the Major turned to the servants and,
taking them apart one by one, questioned them closely. Chunerbutty had
given their story correctly. But Dermot elicited two new facts which they
had not mentioned to the engineer. One raider at least was armed with a
revolver, which was unusual for a Bhuttia, the difficulty of procuring
firearms and ammunition in Bhutan being so great that even the soldiers of
the Maharajah are armed only with swords and bows.
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