On the Irrawaddy: A Story of the First Burmese War

by G. A. Henty

  Chapter 14: In The Temple.

  They went up the flight of steps for a considerable distance, thenthey found the passage blocked by a number of great stones. Stanleyuttered an exclamation of disgust.

  "It has fallen in," he said. "No doubt we are near the top of therock. Either the staircase was roofed in, or there was a buildingerected over the entrance; and either the roof or building,whichever it was, has fallen in. That is very unlucky. When we godown, we will climb up the hill and see if we can discover anythingabout it.

  "With plenty of food and water," he went on, as they descended intothe lowest chamber, "one could hold this place for any time."

  "Yes, master, one could store away the food; but where should westore the water? We might bring skins in that would last us for aweek, perhaps two weeks, but after that?"

  "After that we should make our way off, somehow, Meinik," Stanleysaid, confidently. "Well, there is no doubt that this is the placeto shelter in. They are less likely to find us here than anywhereand, if they do find us, we can defend ourselves stoutly. I shouldsay, too, that if we think it over, we ought to be able to hit uponsome plan for making noises that would frighten them. You know howscared the man and the two boys were, at that sighing sound in theother chamber. We certainly could make more alarming noises thanthat."

  Meinik nodded.

  "That we could, master. With some reeds of different sizes I couldmake noises, some as deep as the roar of a tiger, and others likethe singing of a bird."

  "Then we will certainly bring some reeds in here with us, Meinik. Idon't suppose they will mind, in the daytime, what sounds theyhear; but at night I don't think even their officers would care tomove about here, if we can but make a few noises they do notunderstand.

  "Well, for the present we have done our work here; and you had bestgo off with the Burman to buy food, to serve in case of a siege.You had better go to some of the cultivators' houses, near the edgeof the wood, for rice and fruit. If you can get the food there, youwill be able to make two or three journeys a day, instead of one.

  "But, before we start back, we will climb round to the top of thehill, and see what has happened to shut up the staircase."

  It took them a quarter of an hour's climbing, through the forestand undergrowth, before they reached the upper edge of the rockwall in which the chambers had been excavated. It had evidently, inthe first place, been a natural cliff for, when on the ledge,Stanley had noticed that while below that point the rock was assmooth as a built wall, above it was rough, and evidently untouchedby the hand of man. Following the edge of the cliff, until standingas nearly as they could guess above the entrance to the steps, theywalked back among the trees. At a distance of some thirty yards,they came upon a ruin. It was built of massive stones, like thosewhich strewed the ground where the temple had stood. A great treerose on one side, and it was evident that its growth had, in thefirst place, overthrown the wall at this point. Climbers and shrubshad thrust their roots in between the blocks that had been butslightly moved, by the growth of the tree; and had, in time, forcedthem asunder; and so, gradually, the whole building had collapsed.

  "This tree must be a very old one," Stanley said, looking up at it,"for it is evident that this wall was thrown down a great manyyears ago."

  "Very old, master. It is one of our hardest woods, and such treeslive, they say, five or six hundred years. There are some which areknown to be even older than that."

  "Well, it is clear that the staircase came up here; but we have nomeans of knowing how far the point we reached is below this. Ishould say that the stones we saw are the remains of the pavementand roof, for you see these great blocks that formed the wallsdon't go as far as the middle, where there is a great depression.Still, of course, the steps may have come up on one side or theother, and not just in the middle of this little temple--for, nodoubt, it was a temple.

  "Now, you see, the reason for the steps up to that little squareroom are explained. Probably those three chambers were theapartments of the principal priests, and from them they couldeither go out on to the roof of the temple; or could, by taking theupper staircase to this point, leave or enter without observation.

  "Now, let us be off."

  On arriving at their tree shelter, they found that the Burman hadgot a meal ready and, after partaking of this, Meinik, with theman, started to buy provisions. It was fortunate that Stanley had,before starting from Prome, drawn some twenty pounds' worth ofsilver from the paymaster. He had expected to be away for three orfour weeks and, during that time, would have had to buy provisionsfor himself, Harry, and the four troopers; and might possibly haveoccasion for money for other matters. He had not paid the men fromthe village, for he knew that one of these would willinglyaccompany him to Prome, to receive payment for them all.

  A very small amount of silver sufficed for the purchase of aconsiderable quantity of food in Burma. Fruit, of which many kindsgrew wild in the woods, was extremely cheap; as was rice and grain.Therefore as yet, with the exception of the small sum expended inToungoo, his money was virtually untouched.

  The two Burmans made three journeys before nightfall and returned,each time, with large baskets of fruit, grain, and rice. On thefollowing morning, they went into the town and bought six of thelargest sized water skins--such as are carried for the use of thetroops in India, one on each side of a bullock. As soon as theyreturned with these, they started for the temple. At a stream abouta hundred yards from the entrance they partially filled one of theskins and, placing a strong bamboo through the straps sewn on itfor the purpose, Meinik and the Burmans carried it to the templeand, with Stanley's assistance, lifted it into the lower chamber.The others were, one by one, placed beside it; then water wascarried in the smaller skins and poured in, until they were all asfull as they could hold.

  "There is water enough to last us for a month, if needs be,"Stanley said as, after securely tying up the mouths, they laid theskins down, side by side.

  The smaller mussucks were then filled and placed with the largeskins; and then, having done a long day's work, they returned totheir tree just as the sun was setting. The four men and two boyswere already there, they having done the sixty miles from thevillage without a halt. They had already cooked some rice and someslices of venison--which Meinik had brought, with the water skins,from the town that morning--and were now lying smoking their cigarswith placid contentment.

  For the next six days Meinik went to the town every afternoon. Onhis return on the last evening, he said that the guard had told himthat the governor had paid a visit to the prison, that day, and hadseen the white captive; and had decided that he was now well enoughto travel, and that in two days' time he was to start for Ava, thecourt having sent down an urgent order that he should be carriedthere as soon as he was well enough to bear the fatigue.

  "Then tomorrow we must get him out," Stanley said. "Will our twomen be on duty?"

  "Yes, master, they have not been on since the last night we werethere. They will form the second watch, and will go on guard atmidnight. I have bought two very sharp saws, and have cut twostrong bamboos for the litter."

  This was constructed the next day. It was very simple, being formedby sewing a blanket strongly to the two bamboos. Two slighterbamboos, each four feet long, were tied loosely to the main poles.These were to be lashed across, as soon as they had got beyond thepalisade, so as to keep the poles three feet apart--which, as theblanket was four feet, from pole to pole, would allow it to bagcomfortably. The cross pieces could not be attached until they werebeyond the palisade; for the window was but two feet wide, and itwas therefore proposed to make the gap through the palisade thesame width, only.

  Late in the evening they entered the town, and sat down in adeserted corner until the time came for them to begin their work.At last Meinik said that, by the stars, it was already pastmidnight; and they then proceeded to the spot where they had beforeclimbed the palisade. Here they at once set to work. The saws werewell oiled and, in a very few minutes, fi
ve bamboos were cut away,at the level of the ground and six feet above it. As the stockadewas bound together by cross pieces, behind, the other portions ofthe bamboos remained in their places.

  Meinik and Stanley went first, followed by three of the Burmans,one of whom carried the litter. The other two Burmans with theboys, remained on guard at the opening. All were barefooted, exceptthat Stanley wore a pair of the lightest leather sandals. They wentnoiselessly up to the window; the guard, as before, responding toMeinik's hiss. Without a word, one after another entered thechamber. The trooper had been sitting at the table, evidentlyanxiously expecting their arrival.

  Stanley went up to the bed.

  "Are you better, Harry?" he asked, in a whisper.

  "Better, but still weak."

  Everything had been arranged beforehand. The litter was laid downon the ground, with the poles as far apart as possible. ThenStanley made a sign, to the trooper, to take one end of the rug onwhich Harry was lying; while he took the other. The Burmans rangedthemselves on each side; and the blanket was lifted up, with theoccupant and the pillow composed of his clothes, and laid quietlyon to the blanket of the litter. Then two Burmans went outside,while the other four men lifted the poles and carried one end tothe window.

  The Burmans outside held the ends well above their heads, Stanleyand the trooper raising their hands similarly. The other Burmansthen crawled, under it, out of the window. As the litter was movedforward through the window, they took the places of Stanley and thetrooper at the poles, and silently moved on towards the palisade.Stanley and Meinik followed, joined by the two Burmese guards.

  Not the slightest sound was made, as the eight men crossed theshort distance to the palisade and passed through the opening wherethe others, spear in hand, were awaiting them; ready to rush in andtake part in the fray, should an alarm be given. Stanley breathed agreat sigh of relief, as they passed out. A few paces further theyhalted, and the cross pieces were lashed to the poles.

  "Thank God that you are out, Harry!" Stanley said, as soon as theydid this. "Has it hurt you much?"

  "Nothing to speak of," Harry replied. "You managed it marvellously.Am I really outside the place altogether?"

  "Yes, fairly out. You will be more comfortable when we have lashedthese cross pieces. You will not be lying, then, at the bottom of abag; as you are now."

  When the work was completed, they proceeded at a rapid pace; forHarry's weight, reduced by fever as he had been, was a trifle tohis bearers. The others followed close behind and, in a quarter ofan hour, they were well beyond the town. Stanley spoke to Harryonce or twice, but received no answer; so he had no doubt that hiscousin had dozed quietly off to sleep. The gentle motion of thelitter would be likely to have that effect; especially as Harry hadprobably been lying awake, for the last night or two, listening forthe friends who might arrive at any time.

  When they reached the confines of the forest the torches, which hadbeen carried by the boys, were all lit; and each carried two--withthe exception of the bearers, who had but one each--while all keptclose together round the litter. They waved their torches as theywent and, although they heard the cries of several tigers in theforest, they had no fear of being attacked; as so many wavinglights would deter the most hungry beast from venturing near.

  Once in the chamber at the temple, the litter was laid down on apile of reeds and leaves that had been gathered the day before,together with a great store of brushwood and logs. Harry stillsleeping quietly. In a short time a bright fire was blazing and,with this and the light of the torches, the chamber assumed quite acheerful appearance. On the way, Stanley had spoken to the twoguards, thanked them for their service, and assured them that theywould receive the reward promised by Meinik.

  "I am the British officer," he said, "who was at the village withmy friend, though I was absent when he was carried off. As you see,I am disguised."

  Both had shown signs of uneasiness, when they approached thetemple; but Meinik had assured them that the spirits would notventure to approach a party having a white man with them, and thata night had already been passed in the temple, without any harmcoming of it. A meal, consisting of slices of venison, was at onceprepared and, when this was eaten, and the whole party had lightedcigars, their spirits rose at the success of the enterprise. Thesoldiers, however, had been disappointed at hearing that there wasgoing to be a stay for some little time there, to enable thewounded man to gain strength.

  "We may not stop long," Stanley said; "but, you see, with thelitter we could not travel fast; and you may be sure by this timethe alarm has been given for, when they came to relieve you at theend of three hours, it would be found that you were missing; andthen they would, at once, discover that the captives had gone, too.By daybreak the whole garrison will be out. How many are there ofthem?"

  "There are three thousand men, in the town," the guard said. "Aftera party of your soldiers came within a short distance of it, twomonths ago, fifteen hundred men were added to the garrison."

  "Well, you see, with three thousand men they could scour all thewoods and, if they overtook us, we should be unable to make anydefence. Here, we may hope that they will not discover us; but ifthey do we can make a desperate resistance for, as only one man canenter that door at a time, it would be next to impossible for themto force their way in. You have your guns, and I have a brace ofpistols and, as all the others have spears, it will be as much asthe three thousand men could do, to get in through that door. Ifthey did, there is a still narrower door in the corner to defend;and beyond that there is a long, narrow, steep flight of stairs,that one man could hold against a host.

  "The first thing in the morning, we will carry our stores to theupper chamber. We have water and rice enough to last us for amonth, if we are careful; so that, although I hope they won't findus, I shall not be at all afraid of our beating them off, if theydo so."

  As soon as it was daylight, the stones that had been added to thesteps at the doorway were flung down; and then, by their unitedefforts, the two remaining steps were removed. Then they helpedeach other up, the last man being aided by two of his comrades,above.

  "There," Stanley said; "if they do come to search for us, they arenot likely to suspect that we have got a badly wounded man up here.They may search the big chamber that we were in, before, and anyothers there may be on the same level; but this narrow entrance,ten feet above them, is scarcely likely to attract their attention.If it does, as I said, we must fight it out; but it will be awonderfully hard nut for them to crack."

  He then ordered the men to carry all the stores to the upperchamber. Just as they began the work, there was a slight movementon the bed. Stanley at once went up to it. Harry was looking round,in a bewildered way.

  "Well, Harry, how are you feeling? You have had a capital sleep."

  "Oh, is it you, Stanley? I was not quite sure but that I wasdreaming. Where am I? I must have gone off to sleep, directly westarted; for I don't remember anything, after you spoke to me whenthey were making the hammock more comfortable."

  "You are in a temple--some four or five thousand years old, Ishould say--and this is a rock chamber. The temple itself is inruins. We are ten miles from Toungoo, and shall wait here till thepursuit for you has slackened. In another week, you will be morefit to move than you are, at present. I should not like to carryyou far, as you are now. Besides, if we had pushed on, they wouldhave been sure to overtake us; for these fellows can run likehares."

  "But why should not they find us here, Stanley?"

  "Well, of course they may do so, but the entrance to this chamberis ten feet above the ground; and another thing is, they have allsorts of superstitions about the place. Nothing would induce themto approach it, after nightfall; and even in the daytime, theydon't like coming near it. Lastly, if they do find us, it will takethem all their time to force their way in. I have five men, and twoyoung fellows quite capable of fighting; then there are your twoguards, Meinik, the trooper, and myself. So you see, we mustertwelve. We have two guns
, and a brace of pistols, and spears for usall; and if we cannot defend that narrow passage, against anynumber of Burmans, we shall deserve our fate.

  "Besides, there is another, and even narrower door, in the cornerbehind you. They would have to force that; and in the chamberbeyond there is a narrow, straight staircase, some forty feet high,which a man with an axe ought to be able to hold against an army.They are taking the stores up there, now. We have got provisionsand water for a month. When everything is straight, there we shallcarry you up and, unless they sit down in front of this place andregularly starve us out, we are as safe as if we were in Prome."

  "I wish to goodness you had that hideous dye off you, Stanley. Iknow it is you by your voice but, what with the colour, and allthat tattooing, and your extraordinary hair, I don't know you inthe least."

  "I am in just the same disguise as that in which I made my way downfrom Ava," Stanley laughed. "I felt very uncomfortable, at first,with nothing on but this short petticoat thing; but I have gotaccustomed to it, now, and I am bound to say that it is cool andcomfortable.

  "Now, tell me about your wounds."

  "They are not very serious, Stanley. I had a lick across the headwith a sword--that was the one that brought me down--and a slicetaken out of my arm from the elbow, nearly up to the shoulder. Alsoa spear-wound in the side; but that was a trifle, as it glanced offthe ribs. If I had been left as I fell, and somebody had bound upmy wounds at once, I should have been all right by this time. Thefellows did bandage them up, to some extent; but the movement ofthe litter set them off bleeding again, and I fancy that I lostpretty nearly all the blood in my body. I think that it was pureweakness, rather than fever, that kept me unconscious so long; forI gather, from the pantomime of the trooper, that I must have beennearly a fortnight unconscious."

  "Yes, you were certainly so when I came the first time, Harry; butI think, perhaps, on the whole, it is lucky that you were. Youwould probably have had a great deal more fever, if you had notbeen so very weak; and if you had escaped that, and had gone onwell, you might have been sent off to Ava before I could get allthe arrangements made for your escape."

  "Tell me all about it," Harry said. "It seems to me wonderful howyou managed it."

  Stanley told him the whole story. By the time that he had finished,the stores had all been taken upstairs; and the fire most carefullyextinguished, as the smoke would at once have betrayed them. Thecross pieces of the litter had been taken off, to allow Harry to becarried in through the door, and he was now lifted. Two of the mentook off their cloths, and wrapped the materials of the bed intothese, carrying them up at once. As soon as they had gone on, Harrywas slowly and carefully taken to the upper chamber, and laid downagain on the bed. Stanley took his place beside him, and the restof the party went down to the lower room; having received thestrictest orders not to show themselves near the entrance, and notto smoke until well assured that their pursuers must have passed onahead.

  The bamboos of the litter were converted into a rough ladder and,on this, Meinik took his post at the little window in the second ofthe lower rooms. Owing to the immense thickness of the rock wall,he did not get an extensive view, but he could see the path bywhich anyone coming up through the forest would approach thetemple. It was now about half-past seven and, by this time, thepursuers might be at hand; in ten minutes, indeed, distant shoutscould be heard, and Stanley at once went down and joined the menbelow.

  He placed himself in the line of the doorway. As the wall here wasfour feet thick, the room was in semi-darkness and, standing wellback, he was certain that his figure could not be perceived byanyone standing in the glare of sunshine outside. The sounds grewlouder and louder; and in a minute or two an officer, followed bysome twenty men, emerged from the trees. All paused, when they sawthe temple. The men would have drawn back at once; but the officershouted to them to advance, although showing small inclination todo so, himself.

  They were still standing, irresolute, when a superior officer onhorseback, followed by some fifty footmen, came up the path. Heshouted orders for them to search the temple and, as the fear ofhim was even greater than their dread of the spirits, the whole ofthe men made their way over the fallen stones, and up to the faceof the rock. They first entered the chamber where the horses hadbeen stabled. The officer who had first arrived went in with hismen and, coming out, reported to his senior that there had been afire made, and that some horses had also been there; but that threeweeks, or a month, must have passed since then.

  "Are you sure of that?"

  "Quite certain, my lord. It is extraordinary that anyone shouldhave dared to enter there, still less to stable horses when, aseveryone knows, the temple is haunted by evil spirits."

  "I care nothing for spirits," the officer said. "It is men we arein search of. Go and look into any other chambers there may be."

  At this moment a deep, mournful sound was heard. Louder and louderit rose, and then gradually died away. The soldiers stood as ifparalysed. Even the high official--who had been obliged to leavehis horse, and make his way across the fallen blocks onfoot--stepped back a pace, with an expression of awe. He soonrecovered himself, and shouted angrily to the men to go on. Butagain the dirge-like noise rose, louder and louder. It swelled, andthen as gradually died away; but this time with a quaveringmodulation.

  The men looked up, and round. Some gazed at the upper part of therock, some straight ahead, while others turned round and faced theforest.

  "Search!" the officer shouted, furiously. "Evil spirits or no evilspirits, not a man shall stir from here, until the place issearched."

  Then rose a shrill, vibrating sound, as if of eerie laughter. Noteven the officer's authority, or the fear of punishment, couldrestrain the soldiers. With cries of alarm, they rushed across theruins and plunged into the forest; followed, at a rate which hetried in vain to make dignified, by the officer who, as soon as hereached his horse, leapt upon it and galloped away.

  The Burmese keenly appreciate a joke and, as soon as the troops hadfled, the villagers and guards inside the temple threw themselvesdown on the ground, and roared with laughter. Stanley at once madehis way into the upper room.

  "Splendidly done, Meinik! It was like the note of an organ.Although I knew what you were going to do, I felt almost startled,myself, when that deep note rose. No wonder they were frightened."

  "Well, at any rate, master, we are safe for the present."

  "For the present, no doubt, Meinik; but I question if we sha'n'thear of them, again. That officer was a determined-looking fellowand, though he was scared, too, he stuck to it like a man."

  "That is the governor of the town, master. I saw him carriedthrough the streets in his chair. Everyone was bending to theground, as he passed. He was a famous general, at one time; andthey say that he is likely to command a part of the army, again,when fighting begins."

  "Well, I think that we shall hear of them again, Meinik. I don'tsuppose that he really thought that we were here for, certainly, noBurman would take up his abode in this place, even to save hislife. They will push on the chase through the woods all day and, bythat time, they will feel sure that they would have overtaken us,had we gone straight on. Then I should not be at all surprised ifhe tries here, again."

  "Perhaps he will, master. Like enough, he will chop off the headsof some of the men that ran away, and pick out some of his besttroops for the search. Still, I hope he won't think of it."

  Stanley shook his head.

  "I hope so, too, Meinik. There is one thing about which I feelcertain--if he does find us here, he will stay here or, at anyrate, leave some troops here, until he gets us. He would know thathe would get into trouble, at Ava, for letting the prisonersescape; and it would be all important for him to recapture them.

  "Now we are up here, Meinik, we will go and have a look at thatupper staircase, again. If we are besieged, that is our only hopeof safety."

  They again went along the ledge, and up the staircase. Stanleyexamined the stones that blocked
the passage, for some time, and atlast exclaimed:

  "There, Meinik, look along by the side of this stone. I can see aray of light. Yes, and some leaves. I don't think they are morethan thirty feet above us!"

  Meinik applied his eye to the crevice.

  "I see them, master. Yes, I don't think those leaves are more thanthat distance away."

  "That is what I came to look for," Stanley said. "It was evidentthat this rubbish could only be the stones of the root, andpavement over the depression in the middle of the ruin; and thatthese could not block up this staircase very far. The question is,will it be possible to clear them away? Evidently it will befrightfully dangerous work. One might manage to get one stone out,at a time, in safety. But at any moment, the loosening of one stonemight bring a number of others down, with a run; and anyone on thisnarrow staircase would be swept away like a straw."

  Meinik agreed as to the danger.

  "Well, we need not think it over now, Meinik; but if we are reallybesieged, it is by this way that we must escape, if at all. We musthope that we sha'n't be beset; but if we are, we must try here. Iwould rather be killed, at once, by the fall of a stone on my head,than tortured to death."

  Meinik nodded, and they descended the stairs, put out the torchesthat they had used there, and returned along the ledge to thechamber where Harry was lying.

  "So Meinik scared them away," the latter said, as Stanley sat downbeside him. "I could not think what he was going to do when he cameup here with that long reed, as thick as my leg. He showed it tome, and I saw that it had a sort of mouthpiece fixed into it; andhe made signs that he was going to blow down it. When he did, itwas tremendous and, as it got louder and louder, I put my hands tomy ears. Everything seemed to quiver. The other row--thatdiabolical laughing noise--he made with a smaller one. It wasfrightful; but the big note was more like a trombone, only twentytimes louder.

  "Well, do you think that we have done with them?"

  "I hope so, Harry. At any rate, you can be assured that they willnever fight their way up here and, long before our provisions arefinished, I have no doubt that I shall be able to hit on some planof escape."

  The day passed quietly. The woods were as silent as usual. TheBurmans were all in high spirits at the success of Meinik's horn.When it became dark, they hung a blanket before the entrance,placed one of the lads on watch just outside it, and then lighted afire. Stanley took a couple of torches and went up to Harry, takingthe precaution to hang a cloth before the window.

  "I have not said much about thanking you, old fellow," Harry said,"but you must know how I feel."

  "You had better say nothing about it, Harry. I have only done whatyou would have done, had you been in my place. Had you been incharge of that party, and I had been carried off, I know you wouldhave done all in your power to rescue me. You might not havesucceeded quite so well, because you do not know their language;but I know that you would have tried. After all, I have not runanything like so much risk as I did when I rescued Meinik from theleopard. And he, of course, was an absolute stranger to me.

  "Besides, you are not rescued, yet; and we won't holloa until weare out of the wood."

  "It is very cool and pleasant here," Harry said, after lyingwithout speaking for a few minutes. "It was dreadfully hot in thathut, in the middle of the day; and I used to feel that I lostalmost as much strength, in the day, as I picked up at night. I amwonderfully better this evening. Of course, that long sleep hadsomething to do with it, and the pleasure of being free and withyou had still more; but certainly the coolness, and the air blowingthrough that opening, have counted for something."

  "Well, we shall feed you up as long as you are here, Harry; and Ihope, in a fortnight, to see you pretty firm on your legs again;and then, if there is nothing to prevent it, we will carry you offtriumphantly."

  Meinik here came in, with two bowls of broth; for they had bought afew earthenware utensils on one of the visits to Toungoo.

  "That is first rate!" Harry said, as he finished his first one."What is it made of?"

  "I never ask questions," Stanley replied--who tried, successfully,to keep down a smile. "Meinik is a capital cook, and turns out allsorts of nice little dishes. Here comes his step again.

  "What have you there, Meinik?" he asked, as the Burman entered,with two plates.

  "A slice of mutton done on sticks over the fire, master, and somerice with it."

  "That is first rate!" Harry said heartily, when he had finished."They did not give me meat, in prison. I suppose they thought thatI was not strong enough for it."

  "They eat very little meat themselves, Harry. Now I fancy yourdinner is done, except some fruit. We have got plenty of that."

  There were, however, some fried bananas, and Harry declared that hehad feasted like a king.

  "If this goes on, Stanley, I will wager that I shall be about in aweek; and shall be offering to run a race with you, in afortnight."

  "You will be a good deal longer than that, before you are fit towalk any distance. Still, with a good appetite--which you are sureto have, after your illness--plenty of food, and the cool air inthese caves, I do expect that you will pick up fast."

  The next day passed quietly.

  "I shall be glad when tomorrow is over," Stanley said to Meinik,the last thing before going up to Harry's cell. "Today I expectthey are all marching back again and, if they pay us another visit,it will be early tomorrow morning. Be sure that two men are onwatch. They can relieve each other, every hour; and I shall comedown myself, occasionally, to see that all is right; but I don'tthink that even the governor could get his men to come near thisplace, after dark."

  "We will keep good watch, master, but I have no fear of theircoming."