they were horrified at the outrage. Major
Hunt went at once to the Fort to order out parties of the detachment in
accordance with the District Superintendent's request; and Macdonald got
ready to proceed to the Forest Officer's bungalow forty miles away.

The Assistant Political Officer despatched a cipher telegram to the
Foreign Department, Government of India, at Simla, informing them of the
occurrence and of his intention to investigate the affair personally,
and, if possible, rescue Miss Benson. He knew that the Heads of the
Department, although they would not sanction or approve officially of
his crossing the frontier in pursuit of the raiders, as it would be
contrary to the Treaty with the Bhutanese Government, would not enquire
too closely into his movements. But whether they liked it or not he
intended to follow the abductors if necessary into the heart of Bhutan,
Treaty or no Treaty.

His first step was to send for Tashi and order him to prepare the
disguise that he intended to use. His rifle he left behind, but armed
himself with a brace of long-barrelled automatic pistols to which their
wooden holsters clipped on to form butts, thus converting them into
carbines accurate up to a range of a hundred and fifty or two hundred
yards. He found a third for Tashi in Colonel Dermot's armoury, which was
at his disposal.

Night had fallen long before the detachment elephant that bore Wargrave,
Macdonald, Tashi and the forest guard as well as its own _mahout_,
reached the bungalow where the District Superintendent of Police awaited
them. The doctor found Benson suffering from a wound in the head, with
concussion and fever. Frank interrogated the servants carefully and
elicited from them one fresh fact about the outrage that shed a flood of
light on its motive and its author. It was that the leader of the party
was pock-marked and blind in the right eye; and this at once confirmed
Frank's suspicion that the instigator of Muriel's abduction was the
Chinese _Amban_, whose parting threat to the girl had thus materialised.

At daybreak Wargrave and Tashi started on foot accompanied by a forest
guard to put them on the track of the gang. This led up towards the
Bhutan Frontier, which runs among the hills at an average elevation of
six thousand feet above the sea. As the Assistant Political Officer
anticipated, the party had headed for the portion of the border under
the control of the _Amban's_ friend, the Penlop of Tuna. E