Their story was soon told.  They said that they had been approached by a certain Bhuttia who, formerly residing in British territory, had been forced to flee to Bhutan by reason of his many crimes.  Nevertheless, he made frequent secret visits across the border.  For fifty rupees—­a princely sum to them—­he induced them to agree to join with others in carrying off Miss Daleham.  They found subsequently that the real leader of the enterprise was a Hindu masquerading as a Bhuttia.

When they had succeeded in their object they were directed to go to a certain spot in the jungle where they were to be met by another party to which they were to hand over the Englishwoman.  Having reached the place first they were waiting for the others when Dermot appeared.  So terrible were the tales told in their villages about this dread white man and his mysterious elephant that, believing that he had come to punish them for their crime, all but the two leaders fled in panic.  Several of the fugitives ran into the party of armed Hindus which they were to meet, a member of which spoke a certain amount of Bhutanese.  Having learned what had happened he ordered them to guide the newcomers’ pursuit.

When the attack began the Bhuttias, having no fire-arms, took refuge in trees.  So when the herd swept down upon the assailants all the hillmen escaped.  But they were witnesses of the terrible vengeance of the powerful devil-man and devil-elephant.  When at last they had ventured to descend from the trees that had proved their salvation and returned to their villages these two confided the story to their headman.  At his orders they had come to surrender the price of their crime and plead for pardon.

Their story only deepened the mystery, for, when Dermot eagerly questioned them as to the identity of the Hindus, he was again brought up against a blank wall, for they knew nothing of them.  He deemed it politic to promise to forgive them and allow them to keep the money that they had received, after he had thoroughly impressed upon them the enormity of their guilt in daring to lay hands upon a white woman.  He ordered them as a penance to visit all the Bhuttia villages on each side of the border and tell everyone how terrible was the punishment for such a crime.  They were first to seek out their companions in the raid and lay the same task on them.  He found afterwards that these latter had hardly waited to be told, for they had already spread broadcast the tale, which grew as it travelled.  Before long every mountain and jungle village had heard how the Demon-Man had overtaken the raiders on his marvellous winged elephant, slain some by breathing fire on them and called up from the Lower Hell a troop of devils, half dragons, half elephants, who had torn the other criminals limb from limb or eaten them alive.  So, not the fear of the Government, as Dermot intended, but the terror of him and his attendant devil Badshah, lay heavy on the border-side.