Dinner was preparing in the camp under the toon-trees which covered the foot-hills of the Himalayas.
Here, where the northern edge of the Terai was beginning to become more alpine in its character, the camp was pitched on the fringe of the jungle. Below were magnificent forests of sal, sisoon, and toon-trees; above, pine, spruce, and oak trees proclaimed a more tempered climate.
The spot had been chosen as healthy, well supplied with water, and because the best shooting in the district was fairly accessible from it.
As the Colonel sat in his tent, he saw emerging from the belt of jungle below an extraordinary figure. He called to the Captain and Subaltern, and they watched it as it advanced towards them. The shikaris and native bearers also paused in their various duties, and jabbered among themselves, intent on the approach of the solitary man.
"No Nepaulese, that," asserted the Captain.
"It's a white man," said the Subaltern.
"Wait," said the Colonel.
The figure drew nearer, and at last came into full view. Clad in native dress, weatherbeaten, brown, and lean, with a snow-white beard that swept to his girdle, looking as like a native as a native could look, there was a certain indefinable something about him which told these Englishmen that a compatriot stood before them. Yet, when the Colonel greeted him and bade him welcome to the camp, he stared vacantly and absently at him and made no reply, but squatted gravely on the ground.
The Subaltern quietly mixed a stiff peg and handed it to the stranger, who shook his head; but the Subaltern persisted, and at length he took the glass, looked at it gravely a moment, and then put it to his lips—paused, and then, drinking the whole at a draught, gravely held out the glass to the Subaltern. As he did so, the sleeve of his dress shortened, and his wrist and part of his forearm were bared. The Colonel went to the man, seized the slowly retreating arm, and, pushing the sleeve farther back, showed the others a device tattooed thereon in red and blue. It was two roses intertwined, and underneath the motto, "Aucto splendore resurgo."
In great agitation the Colonel said, "What's your name, sir?"