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The Political Officer rose as the Deb Zimpun, removing his cap, entered the office and rushed towards him. The bullet-headed, cheery old gentleman beamed with pleasure as they shook hands and greeted each other in Bhutanese. Wargrave marvelled at the ease and fluency with which Colonel Dermot spoke the language. The Amban now entered the room and was formally presented by the Deb Zimpun.
This Amban, Yuan Shi Hung by name, is a clever, unscrupulous and particularly dangerous individual." "You seem to know a lot about him, Colonel." "It's my business to do so. There is no apparent reason for his coming here with the Deb Zimpun, nor has he a right to. But I won't object, for I want to study and size him up. By the way, the Envoy will make his official call on me this morning.
Much to the Political Officer's disappointment they wandered for miles without adding anything to the bag. He had calculated on getting another couple of sambhur stags to present to the Deb Zimpun as food for his hungry followers. The route that they were now taking led circuitously back towards the peelkhana, which they wished to reach before sundown.
An hour later the two women watched the snaking line crawl up the steep face of the mountains, and through field-glasses they could distinguish Badshah with his master on his neck, the Deb Zimpun and his followers and the tall form of the Chinaman, until all vanished from sight in the trees clothing the upper hills.
The unveiled flesh of a white woman is peculiarly attractive to the Asiatic, the better-class females of whose race are far less addicted to the public exposure of their charms than are European ladies. While the Deb Zimpun touched nothing but water the Amban drank champagne, port and liqueurs freely even the untravelled Chinaman is partial to European liquors yet they seemed not to affect him.
Towards the termination of their call the Deb Zimpun called in two attendants with large baskets of fine blood oranges and walnuts from Bhutan and presented them in return. A number of coolies were needed to carry off the royal gift of the flesh of the bison, the sight of which made the Envoy's eyes glisten. He shook Wargrave's hand warmly when he learned to whose rifle he owed it.
At their head walked a stockily-built man with cheery Mongolian features, wearing a white cloth garment, kimono-shaped and kilted up to give freedom to the sturdy bare thighs and knees the legs and feet cased in long, felt-soled boots. It was the Deb Zimpun, the Envoy of the independent Border State of Bhutan.
Where the track came out on the bare shoulder of a spur free from the small trees and undergrowth clothing the mountains the Deb Zimpun pointed to the roofs of the buildings in the little station a thousand feet below them and hitherto invisible to them. "That is Ranga Duar," he said briefly. The Chinaman behind him looked down at it.
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