She was his friend, and he felt that it was his right as well as his
duty to rescue her.
With a grim determination to follow her abductors even to Punaka, the
capital of Bhutan, he swung his leg across Badshah's neck and set out,
having bade Chunerbutty inform Daleham and the planters that he had started
in pursuit.
The raiders had left the garden by a path leading to the north and headed
for the mountains. When Dermot got well clear of the bungalow and reached
the confines of the estate, he dismounted and examined the ground over
which they had passed. In the dust he found the blurred prints of a number
of barefooted men and in one place four sharply-defined marks which showed
where they had set down the chair in which Noreen was being carried,
probably to change the bearers. A mile or two further on the track crossed
the dry bed of a small stream. In the sand Dermot noticed to his surprise
the heel-mark of a boot among the footprints of the raiders, it being most
unusual for Bhuttias to be shod.
As his rider knelt down to examine the tracks, Badshah stretched out his
trunk and smelt them as though he understood the object of their mission.
And, as soon as Dermot was again on his neck, he moved on at a rapid pace.
It was necessary, however, to check constantly to search for the raiders'
tracks. The Bhuttias had followed an animal path through the jungle, and
Dermot seated on his elephant's neck with loaded rifle across his knees,
scanned it carefully and watched the undergrowth on either side, noting
here and there broken twigs or freshly-fallen leaves which marked the
passage of the chair conveying Noreen.
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