The information
reached Dermot too late to enable him to seize the man on the tea-estate.
So he hurried to the border to intercept the messenger before he crossed
it. But here, too, he was unsuccessful. Certain that the Brahmin had not
slipped through the meshes of the net formed by his secret service of
subsidised Bhuttias, Dermot returned to the jungle to make search for him
along the way. But all to no avail, much to his chagrin; for he had reason
to hope that he would find on the emissary proof enough of the treason of
the rulers of Lalpuri to hang them. He went back to Malpura to prosecute
enquiries.
To console himself for his disappointment Dermot determined to have a day's
shooting in the jungle, a treat he rarely had leisure for now. He invited
the Dalehams to accompany him. Noreen accepted eagerly, but her brother was
obliged to decline, much to his regret. For Parry was now always in a state
bordering on lunacy, and his brutal treatment of the coolies, when his
assistant was not there to restrain him, several times nearly drove them
into open revolt. So Dermot and his companion set off alone.
As they went along they chanced to pass near a little village buried in the
heart of the jungle. A man working on the small patch of cleared soil in
which he and his fellows grew their scanty crops saw them, recognised
Badshah and his male rider, and ran away shouting to the hamlet.
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