gun, for jungle fowl abounded in the forest, and _kalej_, the black and
white speckled pheasant, in the lower hills, and both were excellent
eating.

Dermot carried out a thorough survey of the borderland between Bhutan and
India, making accurate military sketches and noting the ranges of all
positions suitable for defence, artillery, or observation. Mounted on
Badshah's neck he ascended the steep hills--elephants are excellent
climbers--and explored every known _duar_ and defile.

At the same time he kept a keen look-out for messengers passing between
disloyal elements inside the Indian frontier and possible enemies beyond
it. His knowledge of the language spoken by the Bhuttia settlers within
the border, mostly refugees from Bhutan who had fled thither to escape
the tyranny and exactions of the officials, enabled him to question the
hill-dwellers as to the presence and purpose of any strangers passing
through. He gradually established a species of intelligence department
among these colonists, whose dread and hatred of their former rulers
have made them very pro-British. Through them he was able to keep a
check on the comings and goings of trans-frontier Bhutanese, who are
permitted to enter India freely, although an English subject is not
allowed by his own Government to penetrate into Bhutan. Despite this
prohibition--so Dermot discovered--many Bengalis had lately passed
backwards and forwards across the frontier, a thing hitherto unheard of.
That members of this timorous race should venture to enter such a
lawless and savage country as Bhutan and that, having entered it, they
lived to come back proved that there must be a strong understanding
between many Bhutanese officials and a certain disloyal element in
India.