From now onwards, for two or three weeks, the fugitives led the lives of hunted rats.  They travelled generally only by night, avoiding villages and farms, and keeping away from the road as much as possible.  They were in the southern zone of Bhutan lying nearest the Indian frontier, a region of precipitous hills ten or twelve thousand feet high, their sides clothed with dense vegetation, of deep, fever-laden valleys of awe-inspiring gorges, of rivers liable to sudden floods and rising in a few hours thirty or forty feet.

Tashi in various disguises occasionally visited villages in search of food and information; while the lovers awaited his return in some hidden spot, Frank holding the anxious girl in his arms and trying to calm her fears.  In one excursion the ex-lama got the first definite news of the pursuit.  He learned that the Amban had returned unexpectedly to Tuna, the plot in his favour in Pekin having failed.  He was not satisfied by the tales told by the monks of the lamasery to account for Muriel’s mysterious disappearance, which was that she had been carried off by devils.  He insisted on a search being made for her along the road to the Indian border and sent his own Chinese guards to direct the pursuit.  The companion of the pock-marked man had got back to Tuna and told of their recognition of her.  Yuan Shi Hung, furious at the death of his officer but overjoyed at the discovery of the girl, set out at once with his personal followers and a body of the Penlop’s soldiers to take up the chase.

The fugitives, hotly pursued, had several hair-breadth escapes.  Once they almost blundered into a bivouac of their enemies at night.  They succeeded at last in reaching the great forest in which Wargrave and the ex-lama had parted from the elephants, the forest which ran along the foot and clothed the northern slopes of the second-last range of mountains between them and the frontier.  But alas! there was no trace of Badshah’s herd; yet this was not surprising, for they found themselves in a part unknown to them.  Through this vast jungle they travelled by day, until one evening they reached a deep gorge that pierced the range and seemed to promise a passage through the mountains.

They camped for the night by its mouth, intending to enter it at sunrise.  Dawn found them breaking their fast on a scanty meal of dried mutton and bananas.  Suddenly Tashi stopped eating and held up a warning hand.  His companions drew their pistols, Frank having given his second weapon to Muriel.  Presently they heard the faint sounds of an animal’s approach on their track.  Just as they had risen silently to their feet three gigantic dogs appeared, scenting their trail.  They were Tibetan mastiffs, such as are to be seen chained in the court yards of lamaseries.  At sight of them the huge brutes stopped, crouched for an instant, showing their fangs in a fierce snarl, and then rushed at them.