ging them with a whistling shower of
lead as they flew. When the last Kachin who could run had disappeared
behind the building, the comrades checked their fire and looked at
each other with joyful eyes. Jim slapped the breech of the eight-bore
exultantly.

"It sent every bullet through their shield like a cannon!" he cried.
"Lucky I put it in; they'd have got up to the door all right if it
hadn't stopped 'em."

"They would, indeed, Jim," replied Jack, "and it would have been all
over with us then."

"Sure thing," agreed Buck. "We should ha' hit the long trail in short
order."

"What's the next move?" cried Jack.

"Hard to say," replied Jim. "We can do nothing but watch 'em."

Watch them they did. The three comrades kept a steady look-out, but
the sun went down, and the swift dark of the tropics fell over jungle
and clearing, and the dacoits had given no further sign of their
presence. The approach of night filled the besieged with the greatest
uneasiness. There was no moon to light the early hours of the
darkness, and in the deep gloom the dacoits could creep upon them
unseen and swarm over them by sheer force of numbers. But just as dusk
fell, Me Dain began to drag down a number of planks and posts from
aloft. This was the fruit of his hacking away with the heavy _dah_. He
had cut loose enough timber to make a very useful barrier at the open
doorway, and he and Jim made the strongest barricade they could while
the others kept watch.

When night fell they kept their places, every ear strained to catch
the faintest sound. They had only to watch one side of the ground
floor where they stood. Three of the walls were solid and very
strongly built; the fourth was pierced by the windows and the door,
and here they had taken their stand from the first.

About two hours after dark, Me Dain came to the head of the stairs
leading to the next floor. He had been stationed there to move from
one to the other of the upper windows and keep strict watch all round.

"Come here now," said Me Dain.

"I'll go," murmured Jack, and he groped his way across the floor to
the foot of the wooden steps. Up he went, and found the Burman waiting
for him at the top.

"Me think some men this way," muttered Me Dain, and took Jack's
shoulder to lead him through the darkness of the unlighted passage
above.

"Which way?" whispered Jack eagerly, clutching his rifle. "Are they
creeping on us from the back, Me Dain?"

"Me think so," repli