On the Irrawaddy: A Story of the First Burmese War

by G. A. Henty

  Chapter 12: Harry Carried Off.

  Early in September, Stanley was sent to purchase cattle from someof the villages near the foot of the hills and, at the same time,to make inquiries as to the movements of a large band of marauderswho had been making raids in that neighbourhood. He had with himfour troopers of the bodyguard. Harry Brooke accompanied him.Although from the healthier situation of Prome, the amount ofillness during the wet season did not approach that which had beensuffered at Rangoon, a great many men were in hospital, and therewere many deaths. Harry had had a sharp attack of fever and, as hehad now recovered, to a certain extent, the medical officer of hisregiment strongly recommended that he should have a change; and hetherefore, without difficulty, obtained his colonel's leave toaccompany Stanley, as the ground would be much higher than that onthe river, and the mere fact of getting away from a camp where somany deaths took place every day would, in itself, be of greatvalue.

  Stanley's daily journeys were not likely to be long ones, as he hadinstructions to stop at all villages; and to see how things weregoing on, and whether the people had any complaints to make ofoppression and exaction by their local authorities.

  "It is a tremendous pull, your being able to speak the language,Stanley," Harry said. "If it hadn't been for that, you would havebeen stuck at Prome, like the rest of us. Instead of that, you arealways about; and you look as fresh and healthy as if you were at ahill station, in India."

  "Yes, it has been an immense advantage to me, in all ways. Ofcourse, I should never have got my staff appointment if it had notbeen for that.

  "By the way, I have not told you that, while you were down with thefever, the gazette containing the confirmation of my appointment bythe general, and the notice of my commission, dated on the day ofmy appointment, came out. I had quite a lump sum to draw foralthough, I have been paid as interpreter all along, the paymastermade a difficulty about my pay as a subaltern, until I was gazettedregularly; so I have quite a large sum coming to me, on my pay andallowances. I don't know how you stand for cash but, if you areshort at all, I can let you have anything that you want."

  "I have got really more than I know what to do with, Stanley. Ibought an uncommonly good native horse, as you know, six weeks ago;and I am going to ride him for the first time now but, really, thatis almost the first penny that I have spent since we left Rangoon.There is nothing to buy here except food and, of course, that is amess business. I had an idea that this was a rich country but, sofar, one has seen nothing in the way of rich dress materials, orshawls, or carpets, or jewelry that one could send home aspresents. Why, in India I was always being tempted; but here it iscertainly the useful, rather than the ornamental, that meets theeye."

  "I saw some nice things at Ava but, of course, all the upperclasses bolted as we came up the country; and the traders in richgoods did the same. Are you going to take a servant with you,Harry? I don't think that there is any occasion to do so, forMeinik can look after us both, well enough."

  "Yes, I am thinking of taking my native, the man I hired just afterI got here. He is a very good fellow, and made himself very useful,while I was ill. I picked up a tat for him, yesterday, for a fewrupees. I know that your man would do very well for us both but,sometimes, when you make a village your headquarters and ride tovisit others from it, I may not feel well enough to go with you;and then he would come in very handy, for he has picked up a goodmany words of English. Your man is getting on very well, that way."

  "Yes; he was some time before he began for, of course, he had nooccasion for it; but now that he has taken to what he considers anEnglish costume, and has made up his mind that he will never settledown again under a Burmese government, he has been trying hard topick up the language. I found that it was rather a nuisance atfirst when, instead of telling him what was wanted in his ownlanguage, I had to tell him in English, and then translate it forhim. However, he does understand a good deal now and, whenever hehas nothing else to do, he is talking with the soldiers. Of course,from his riding about so much with me, he is pretty well known,now; and as he is a good-tempered, merry fellow, he makes himselfat home with them and, if the campaign lasts another six months, Ithink he will speak very fair English."

  "I fancy that you will have to make up your mind that he is apermanency, Stanley. I am sure he intends to follow you, whereveryou go; whether it is to England, India, or anywhere else."

  "I sha'n't be sorry for that, Harry; certainly not as long as I amout here. In the first place, he is really a very handy fellow, andready to make himself useful, in any way; then there is no doubtthat he is greatly attached to me, and would go through fire andwater for me. A man of that sort is invaluable to anyone knockingabout as I shall be, when the war is over and I take up tradingagain. His only fault is that he is really too anxious to do thingsfor me. Of course, when I am on duty there is nothing much he cando; but if I am sitting in a room, he will squat for hours in thecorner and watch me. If my cheroot gets low, there he is with afresh one and a light, in a moment. If I drop my handkerchief, or apen, there he is with it, before I have time to stoop. Sometimes Ihave really to invent errands to send him on, so as to give himsomething to do for me. I own that I have not contemplated whatposition he would occupy, if I go trading; but I quite recognizethat he will go with me, and that he would become a portion of myestablishment, even if that establishment consisted only ofhimself.

  "Will you be ready to start at four in the morning? The sun istremendously hot now, on the days between the rain; at any rate, itwill be much better for you, till you get your strength, to travelin the cool of the morning, or in the evening."

  "I shall be ready. I will be round here, with my servant, by thathour. By the way, what shall I bring with me?"

  "Nothing at all. I shall take a couple of chickens, and some breadand coffee and sugar, and a bottle of brandy for emergencies; butwe shall have no difficulty in getting food in the villages. Thetroopers will only carry their day's rations with them. After thatI always act as mess caterer, and charge expenses when I get backhere."

  Accordingly, the next morning they started at four o'clock. Stanleyinsisted that Harry should ride his second horse, for the present;as his own, having been six weeks without exercise, and fed verymuch better than it had been accustomed to, was in much too highspirits to be pleasant for an invalid. Meinik, therefore, tookHarry's; and the latter rode beside his cousin, whose horse had hadabundant exercise, and was well content to canter quietly along bythe side of his companion.

  By the end of ten days, Harry had picked up some of his strength.They now reached a village which Stanley decided to use as hisheadquarters, for a few days, while he made excursions to otherplaces within a day's ride. It was a good place for a halt;standing as it did at some height on the hills, where the air wasmuch cooler at night than in the flat country. It was surrounded bya clearing of about a hundred acres in extent; planted with cacaotrees, pepper, and many kinds of vegetables.

  "This is delightful!" Harry said, as they sat in front of the hutthat had been cleared for them, and looked over the plain. "It mustbe twenty degrees cooler, here, than it was at Prome. I think Ishall do nothing tomorrow, Stanley, but just sit here and enjoymyself. I know it is very lazy, for I am feeling quite myselfagain; still, after ten days' riding, I do think that it will bepleasant to have a day's rest."

  "Do, by all means," Stanley said. "I think you had better stay herefor the three days that we shall remain. Your man is a very goodcook, and there is no lack of food. Those chickens we had just nowwere excellent, and the people have promised to bring in some game,tomorrow. There are plenty of snakes, too; and you lose a gooddeal, I can assure you, by turning up your nose at them. They arejust as good as eels, as Meinik cooks them--stewed with a blade ofcinnamon, and some hot peppers. I cannot see that they can be a bitmore objectionable to eat than eels; indeed, for anything oneknows, the eel may have been feasting on a drowned man, the daybefore he was caught; while the snakes only take a meal once a weekor so, and then
only a small bird of some kind."

  "I dare say that you are quite right, Stanley, and I own that thedishes your man turns out look tempting; but I cannot bring myselfto try, at any rate as long as I can get anything else to eat. If Iknew that it was a case of snake, or nothing, I would try it; buttill then, I prefer sticking to birds and beasts."

  The next morning Stanley rode off, with two of his escort andMeinik, who declined altogether to be left behind.

  "No, master," he said, "there is never any saying when you may wantme; and what should I ever say to myself if misfortune were to cometo you, and I were not to be there?"

  Stanley had a long day's work. As a rule, the villagers had fewcomplaints to make but, at the place he went to on this occasion,the headman had been behaving as in the old times; and Stanley hadto listen to a long series of complaints on behalf of thevillagers. The case was fully proved, both as to extortion and illtreatment. Stanley at once deprived the man of his office, andcalled upon the villagers to assemble and elect another in hisplace.

  "If you are not satisfied," he said to the fellow, "you can go toProme, and appeal to the general there; but I warn you that, if youdo, you must give notice to the villagers of your intention so thatthey may, if they choose, send two or three of their number torepeat the evidence that they have given me. I have noted thisfully down, and I can tell you that the general, when he reads it,will be much more likely to order you a sound flogging, than toreinstate you in your office."

  It was dusk when Stanley arrived within two miles of the villagewhere he had left Harry. Meinik, who was riding just behind him,brought his horse up alongside.

  "Do you see that, sir? There is a light in the sky. It is just overwhere the village is. I am afraid there is a fire there."

  "You are right, Meinik. I hope nothing has gone wrong."

  He touched his horse with his heel, and rode on at a gallop. Hebecame more and more anxious, as he approached the village. Noflames could be seen leaping up, but there was a dull glow in thesky. As he rode into the clearing, he reined up his horse indismay. A number of glowing embers, alone, marked the place wherethe village had stood; and no figures were to be seen moving about.

  "There has been foul play, Meinik.

  "Get ready for action, men," he said to the two troopers, and theydashed forward at a gallop.

  Two or three little groups of people were sitting, in an attitudeof deep dejection, by the remains of their houses.

  "What has happened?" Stanley shouted, as he rode up.

  "The robbers have been here, and have slain many, and burned thevillage."

  "Where is my friend?"

  "They have carried him off, my lord; or at least, we cannot findhis body. His servant and one of the soldiers are lying dead; butof the other soldier, and the officer, there are no signs."

  "This is terrible!" Stanley exclaimed. "Tell me exactly how ithappened."

  "It was four hours ago, my lord. The robbers came suddenly out fromthe plantation, and fell upon the people. Many they killed at once;but many also have escaped as we did, by running in among theplantations, and so into the forest. We heard the firing of guns,for a little time; then everything was silent, and we knew that therobbers were searching the houses. Half an hour later, smoke rosein many places, and then flames; then after a time, all was quiet.A boy crept up among the bushes, and came back with the news thatthey had all gone.

  "Then we came out again. Twenty-three of our people had beenkilled, and eight carried off; at least, we cannot find the bodies.The white officer and one of his soldiers have gone, also."

  "Which way did they go?"

  "The tracks show that they went up the hill. Most likely they willhave gone to Toungoo, if they have gone to any town at all; butindeed, we think they have taken the prisoners to get a reward forthem."

  Stanley had thrown himself off his horse, as he rode up; and hestood for some time, silently leaning against it. Then he said toMeinik:

  "Picket the horses, and then come and have a talk with me."

  Then he turned to the two troopers:

  "There is nothing to be done now," he said. "You had better lookabout, and see what you can find in the way of food; and then get agrave dug for your comrade, and another for Mr. Brooke's servant."

  The two Mahommedan troopers saluted, and led their horses away.Meinik, after picketing the animals, returned to Stanley but,seeing that the latter was pacing up and down, and evidently notdisposed to speak, he went away.

  There were a good many fowls walking about, in a bewildered way,near the huts. They had been away, as usual, searching for food inthe plantations and fields when the robber band arrived and, ontheir return home at dusk, had found everything changed. A boy atonce caught and killed two of these, plucked them and brought themto Meinik who, getting some embers from the fires, cut the fowls intwo and put them on to roast. A few minutes sufficed to cook them.As soon as they were ready, Meinik took them to Stanley.

  "You must eat, master," he said. "You have had nothing since westarted, this morning; and sorrow, alone, makes a poor supper. Youwill want to do something, I know; and will need all yourstrength."

  "You are right, Meinik. Yes, give me one of them, and take theother one yourself and, while we eat, we can talk. Of course, Imust make an effort to rescue my cousin from the hands of thisband."

  "Yes, master, I knew that you would do that."

  "Did you ask how many there were of them, Meinik?"

  "Some say forty, some say sixty."

  "If we knew where they are now, and could come up to them, we mightmanage to get them off while the robbers were asleep."

  Meinik shook his head.

  "They are sure to keep a strict guard, over a white officer," hesaid; "but if we rushed in and shouted, and fired pistols, theymight all run away."

  "I am afraid not, Meinik. There might be a scare for a minute but,directly they saw that there were only two of us, they would turnand kill us. Your people are brave enough. They may feel that theycannot stand against our troops, owing to our discipline; but theyfight bravely hand-to-hand. However, we don't know exactly whichway they have gone; and it would be hopeless to search for them inthe forest, during the darkness.

  "What should they go to Toungoo for?"

  "I have been thinking it over, master; and it seems to me that manyof them may belong there, or to the villages near. They may notdare return to their homes, because they are afraid that they wouldbe punished for having left the army, and would certainly be sentoff again to it. Now they may think that, if they go back with awhite officer and soldier, and tell some story of having beaten agreat many English, they will be rewarded; and may even be able toremain some time in their homes, before they are sent off; or theymay be ordered to march with their prisoners to Ava, where theywould get still more reward. I can see no other reason for theircarrying off the officer."

  "I think very likely that is so, Meinik. Anyhow, we are more likelyto rescue my cousin, at Toungoo, than we should be while on theroad. It would be next to impossible to find them among all thehills and trees and, even if we did come upon them at night, andcould creep into the midst of them, we might find that my cousin istoo severely wounded to travel for, as there was a fight, it isalmost certain he must have been wounded before he was captured.Therefore, I think it is best to make straight for Toungoo.

  "How many miles is it from here, do you think?"

  Meinik went over to the natives and asked the question. "Aboutforty-five miles, they say; very bad travelling; all mountains, butten miles to the north is a road that runs straight there."

  "Then we had better follow that, Meinik. In this broken country,and forest, we should be losing our way continually."

  "How will you go, master? On horse or foot?"

  "We will go on horseback, as far as we can; we are not likely tomeet people travelling along the road, at present. Another thing isthat, if we can get the horses as near the town as possible, theywould be very useful for, if Mr. Brook
e has been wounded badly, hemay not be able to walk far.

  "You do not know whether the country near the town is open, orwhether the forests approach it closely?"

  The natives were again applied to.

  "It is a rich country there, they say; and well cultivated, forfive or six miles round the town."

  "I will go and have a talk with them, presently. It will, ofcourse, be necessary for me to disguise myself again."

  Meinik nodded.

  "Yes, you must do that, master."

  "Do you think that we can get two or three men to go with us, fromhere?"

  "If you will pay them, master, no doubt they will be ready to go.They are well content with the white rulers. They find that theyare not oppressed, and everything is paid for; and that the whiteofficers treat them kindly and well. They have lost many things, inthis affair today, and would be glad to earn a little money.

  "How many would you like to have?"

  "Four or five, Meinik. I don't exactly know, at present, what therewould be for them to do; but they could help to make fires, andkeep watch, while we are doing something. At any rate, they may beuseful.

  "Of course, I shall get the trooper out, too, if I can. Very likelythey will be confined together and, if we rescue one, we can ofcourse rescue the other.

  "Now I must do some writing. Get me a torch of some sort, and Iwill do it while you are speaking to the natives."

  Stanley always carried a notebook and pen and ink, to take downstatements and complaints, as he rode about. He now sat down andwrote an account of what had taken place during his absence.

  "We had no previous news of the existence of the band," he went on,"and the natives, themselves, had certainly no fear of any attackbeing imminent. Had I thought that there was the slightest risk, Ishould not have made the village my headquarters; or have left Mr.Brooke there, with only his servant and two troopers. I regret thematter, most deeply; and am about to set off to Toungoo, with myman. I shall, of course, go in disguise; and shall make everyendeavour to free my cousin.

  "I trust, General, that you will grant me leave for this purpose. Iam, of course, unable to say how long it may take me but, howeverlong, I shall persevere until I learn that my cousin is dead, oruntil I am, myself, killed. I trust that in starting at once, onthe assumption that you will grant me leave, I am not committing abreach of duty. But if so, and you feel that you cannot, under thecircumstances in which you are placed, grant leave to an officer tobe absent on private business, I inclose a formal resignation of mycommission, stating why I feel myself constrained, even in thepresence of the enemy, to endeavour to rescue my cousin from theband that has carried him off. At any rate, it could not be saidthat I resigned in order to shirk danger.

  "I sent off two days ago, by one of the natives here, a report ofmy proceedings up to that date; and have now the honour to inclosethe notes I took of my investigations, today, into the conduct ofthe headman of Pilboora, and my reasons for depriving him of hisoffice. I shall leave the two troopers of my escort here, withorders to remain until either I return, or they receiveinstructions from Prome. I am taking a few of the villagers withme. Should anything occur to me, at Toungoo, they will bring backthe news to the troopers; and I shall leave instructions with themto carry it, at once, to you. If I find that Mr. Brooke has beensent on to Ava I shall, of course, follow and endeavour to effecthis rescue on the road.

  "As it is possible, General, that I may not have anotheropportunity of thanking you for the many kindnesses that you haveshown me, allow me to do so, most heartily, now."

  When Stanley had concluded the letter, and written the paperoffering his resignation, and giving his reasons for so doing, hecalled Meinik to him.

  "Well, Meinik, have you found men willing to go with us?"

  "Yes, master, I have got five men; two of them know Toungoo well.All are stout fellows. I offered them the terms that youmentioned--fifty ounces of silver, to each man, if you succeeded bytheir aid in rescuing the officer. They were delighted at theoffer, which would enable them to replace everything that they havelost.

  "I told them, of course, that if it were necessary to fight, theywould have to do so; and that, as many of their countrymen wereenlisted, as gun lascars and in other occupations, with theEnglish; and are, of course, exposed to the attacks of theircountrymen, they would only be doing what others have been willingto do.

  "They said that they were ready enough to fight. You were thegovernment, now; and you were a good government, and they wouldfight for you and, besides, as the officer was carried off fromtheir village, it was their duty to help to get him back.

  "One of them said, 'These men who attacked us are Burmese soldiers.As they attack us, there is no reason why we should not attackthem.'

  "So I think, master, that you can count upon them. The Burmese havealways been fond of fighting, because fighting means booty. Thetroops don't want to fight any more, because they get no booty, anda number of them are killed. But, now that the villagers have beenforced to go to the war against their will; and have beenplundered, and many killed, by Burmese soldiers, they are quiteready to take sides with you. Three of them have had wives orchildren killed, today; and that makes them full of fight."

  "Well, you had better tell them to cook, at once, food for two orthree days. At four o'clock they are to start, through the forest,to the road you spoke of. We will set out at the same time, onhorseback; but we shall have to make a detour, so they will be onthe road before we are. Tell them when they get there to stop,until we come up."

  "Yes, master. It is a good thing that I rode your second horse,yesterday, instead of Mr. Brooke's animal."

  "Yes, he is worth a good deal more than the other, Meinik, and Ishould certainly have been sorry to lose him."

  "One of the men who is going with us says that he knows of theruins of an old temple, eight or nine miles this side of Toungoo;and that this would be a good place for us to leave our horses. Itis very, very old; one of those built by the people who lived inthe land before we came to it, and the Burmans do not like to gonear it; so that there would be no fear of our being disturbed,there. Even these men do not much like going there; but I told themthat no evil spirits would come, where white men were."

  "It is rather far off, Meinik; but as you say the country iscultivated, for some distance round the town, we shall certainlyhave to leave our horses some six or seven miles away; and two orthree miles will not make much difference. We can put on ourdisguises there.

  "You had better take a couple of boys to look after the horses,while we are away."

  "They would not sleep there, at night," Meinik said, doubtfully. "Idon't think the men would, either, if you were not there."

  "That would not matter, Meinik, if as you say, there is no fear ofanyone else going there."

  "Certainly, no one else will go there at night, master."

  "At any rate, if you can get two boys to go, we may as well takethem. They might go there in the day, and feed and water thehorses; and sleep some distance away, at night."

  Meinik found two boys, sixteen years old, who said that they wouldgo with them and, at the hour agreed on, Stanley and Meinik startedon horseback. They descended the hill to the plain at its foot and,turning to the right, rode for some ten or twelve miles; when theystruck into the road and, following this at an easy pace they came,in the course of another hour, upon the party of villagers sittingby the roadside.

  The sun was just rising, and they travelled for three hours withoutmeeting anyone; then they drew off into the wood, at a point wherea small stream crossed the road and, after eating a meal, andgiving a good feed to the horses, lay down to sleep till the heatof the day abated--the natives, who were all armed with spears andswords, keeping watch by turns.

  At four o'clock they started again and, at ten, approached the spotwhere, in the depth of the wood, lay the temple. The man who knewits position declared, however, that he could not find it, atnight. Stanley had no doubt that he was really afrai
d to go therebut, as he did not wish to press them against their will, he saidcarelessly that it made no difference if they halted there, orclose by the road, and a fire being speedily lit, they bivouackedround it.

  Meinik had procured the necessary dyes from a village, and Stanleywas again stained, and covered with tattoo marks, as before.

  "What am I to do about your hair, master?" he asked. "It will neverdo for you to go, like this."

  Stanley had not thought of this point and, for a time, wascompletely at a loss. His own hair was now short, and could notpossibly be turned up.

  "The only thing that I can see," he said, after a long pause, "isfor you and the men each to cut off a lock of hair from the top ofyour heads, where it will not show. The six locks would be ample;but I don't see how you are to fasten it, below the turban."

  "There are berries we can get wax from," Meinik said. "We boil themin water, and the wax floats at the top. With that, master, wecould fasten the hair in among yours, so that it would look allright."

  The men had all laughed at the proposal, but willingly consented topart with a portion of their hair. Meinik therefore proceeded tostain Stanley's close crop black and, the first thing in themorning, the boys went out, soon returning with a quantity ofberries. Some water was poured over them, in an earthenware pot,and placed over the fire and, in half an hour, a thick scum of oilgathered on the surface. Meinik skimmed it off, as fast as itformed and, as it cooled, it solidified into a tenacious mass,somewhat resembling cobblers' wax. The six locks of hair hadalready been cut off, and the ends were smeared with the wax, andworked in among Stanley's own hair; then a little of the hot waxwas rubbed in, and the men all declared that no one would noticeanything peculiar in his appearance. The long tresses were curledround, at the top of the head, and a ring of muslin tied round. TheBurmans were immensely amused at the transformation that had beenwrought in Stanley's appearance; and followed him through the wood,to the temple, without any signs of nervousness.

  The ruins were extensive. A considerable portion of the buildinghad been hewn out of the face of a precipitous rock, in the mannerof some Hindoo temples; and it was evident that it had been thework of a people more closely allied to the Indian race than to theTartar or Chinese people, from whom the Burmese sprung. Uncouthfigures were sculptured on the walls. At these the Burmese lookedwith some awe but, as Stanley laughed and joked over them, theysoon recovered their usual demeanour.

  "I am a great deal more afraid of tigers than of ghosts," Stanleysaid; "a deserted place like this is just the sort of spot theywould be likely to be in. At any rate, if these caves do not go anyfurther into the hill--and there are no signs of their doing so--itmay be hoped that the tigers have their superstitions about it,too. At any rate, it will be a good thing to pile a great quantityof firewood at the entrance; and I think one of you had better stayhere, with the boys. They and the horses would be a great dealsafer here, with a fire burning; than they would be in the woods,where a tiger might pounce upon them, at any moment. As to thisfolly about spirits, it is only old women's chatter."

  The Burmese talked among themselves, and one of the men finallyagreed to stay with the boys. An hour was spent in gathering a pileof brushwood and logs, and the man said that he and the two boyswould gather plenty more, during the day. They were, at fouro'clock, to take the horses down to the river, a mile distant, andlet them drink their fill. They had brought with them a large bagof grain--which had been carried by the men--a quantity ofplantains, and some fowls. Therefore, the party that were to remainwould be well provided.

  Moreover, in collecting the wood a score of snakes had been killed.Some of these and a chicken had been cooking while they were atwork and, as soon as this was eaten, they started for the town.When they came within a mile of it, Stanley entered a plantation offruit trees, and Meinik and the four men went on.

  They returned, in two hours, with the news that a party of ten menhad arrived in the town, on the previous day, with two prisoners.One, a coloured man, had been able to walk. The other, a white man,had been carried in on a litter. They had both been lodged in thejail.

  By this time, the conduct of the English towards the natives, atRangoon and the territory they occupied, had had one good effect.Signally as they had been defeated by them, the Burmese had losttheir individual hatred of the strangers. They knew that theirwounded and prisoners always received kind treatment at their handsand, although the court of Ava remained as arrogant and bigoted asever, the people in lower Burma had learned to respect theirinvaders, and the few prisoners they had taken received much bettertreatment than those who had been captured at the commencement ofthe war.

  As soon as it was dusk, Stanley went with Meinik into the town. Itwas a place of considerable size, with buildings at least equal tothose at Prome. Toungoo had formed part of the kingdom of Pegu,before it had been subdued by the Burmese. The peculiar andcharacteristic facial outline of the latter was, here, much lessstrongly marked and, in many cases, entirely absent; so Stanleyfelt that, even in daylight, he would pass without attracting anyattention.

  The prison was surrounded by a strong and high bamboo fence, and inthe space inclosed by this were eight or ten dwellings of the usualwooden construction. A dozen armed men were seated by a fire in theyard, and two sentries were carelessly leaning against the gate.

  "There should be no difficulty in getting in there with two ropeladders--one to climb up with, and one to drop on the other side,"Stanley said. "You may be sure that most of the guard go to sleep,at night. The first thing to ascertain is which house the prisonersare kept in and, in the second place, how my cousin is going on. Wecan do nothing until he is able to walk for a short distance.

  "Let us move round to the other side of the inclosure. It may bethat a sentry is posted at their door."

  On getting to the other side, and looking through the crevicesbetween the bamboos, they could make out two figures squatted bythe door of one of the houses; and had no doubt that this was theone in which Harry Brooke was confined.

  "Now, Meinik, the first thing is for you to go and buy a rope. Whenthe place gets quite quiet, we will make a loop and throw it overthe top of the palisade, behind that hut; then I will climb up andlet myself down, inside, and then crawl up to the hut and see whatis going on there. If my cousin is alone, I will endeavour to speakto him; but of course there may be a guard inside, as well as atthe door. If he is very ill, there will probably be a light."

  "Let me go, master!"

  "No, Meinik, I would rather go myself. I shall be able to judge howhe is, if I can catch a sight of him."