while Buck and Jim formed a rearguard
behind the ponies. Looking ahead, Jack saw that the path began to
descend very rapidly and fell out of sight. He ran forward and found
himself on the lip of a ravine with steep sides. At the foot of the
ravine flowed the river, and Jack gave a shout of joy when he saw how
near they were to the stream which promised safety.

Then the sound of swift, heavy blows came to his ears, and he looked
in the direction whence they proceeded. His call of joy was checked in
an instant. What were those three figures in blue doing down there? In
a second he saw what it meant, and he dropped on one knee and clapped
his Mannlicher to his shoulder with a cry of anger. The dacoits had
been more cunning than they suspected. The pursuers knew also of the
bridge, and at this very instant three powerful Kachins were hacking
away with their keen, heavy _dahs_, cutting the bridge down.

The three men in blue were so intent on their work that they never
once glanced upwards. They were slashing fiercely at the nearer end of
the bridge, and were about two hundred and fifty yards away. A
rifle-bullet would reach them more quickly than anything, and Jack
drew a careful bead on the nearest worker and fired. His bullet went
through the arm which had just swung up the heavy blade for a fresh
stroke at the frail bridge, and the _dah_ dropped into the water,
while the dacoit's yell of pain came clearly to the ears of the party
now gathered on the edge of the ravine.

"Gosh!" cried Buck. "They're ahead of us."

"So they are," snapped Jim. "They're cutting down the bridge and
penning us in. Drop 'em, boys, drop 'em quick, or it's all over with
us."

At the next instant a swift shower of the tiny slips of lead was
pelting on to the bridge head where the two dacoits still hacked away,
striking harder and faster now that the rifles cracked on the lip of
the ravine. One dropped into the river with a splash, the other leapt
into cover of the big tree to which the bridge was swung, and was safe
from the darting bullets. But his gleaming _dah_ still flashed into
sight now and again as he hewed fiercely at the bridge.

Jack at once bounded out, and, followed by his companions, raced madly
for the place. The bridge was but a slight affair, a native structure
formed of a couple of long bamboo poles with cross pieces lashed into
place by native cordage.

The lower slope of the ravine was covered with tall bushes of wild