obacco in a down-river village, and were glad to serve travellers who
would pay them well. The baggage was stripped from the pony, and
hastily swung into the empty boat.

"What shall we do with the pony?" said Jack.

"Turn him loose into the jungle," said Buck. "He's got heaps of sense,
they all have. Before night he'll hit on some village, and then he'll
soon find a master. A stray pony comes in very useful to anybody."

This was done. Me Dain led the pony a short distance from the river
bank and loosed it, and gave it a cut with a switch. The little
creature threw up its heels joyfully to find itself free, then
cantered off among the trees, and they saw it no more.

By this time the Shans had swallowed their rice, and were ready to
seize their poles. All sprang aboard, the Shans and Me Dain grasped
the boating-poles, and the craft was soon being driven steadily up
stream. For some time Jack watched the boatmen with deep interest.
They drove their craft along just as a punt is propelled in England.
Each man handled a long stout pole, and, where the water was shallow
enough, he set the bottom of his pole in the gravelly bed and urged
the boat forward. Where the water was too deep the craft was turned
inshore, and the polers thrust the ends of their staves against the
bank or against tree trunks lining the water's edge. Jack saw that
quite deep holes had been made in many of the trunks where boatman
after boatman had gained the purchase which sent his craft spinning up
stream.

"Well, Jim," said Jack, "this is a bit easier anyhow."

"It is," sighed Dent, wiping the streaming sweat from his brow. "I was
pretty near caving in, and that's a fact."

"We'll drop the dacoits for a sure thing," said Buck. "They'll stop to
hunt all about the place where they lose our trail, and then they'll
follow up the pony for a dead cert."

"True for you, Buck," replied Jim Dent. "We left no marks at all to
show them where we got into the boat."

They had embarked secretly by pushing the boat up to a big stone, and
moving carefully in order to leave no trace.

"Where does the road turn off from the river bank, Me Dain?" asked
Jack.

"We have passed it already, sahib," replied the Burman. "It is solid
jungle on both banks now, with no path at all The dacoits cannot
follow except along the river itself."

"Then we've dropped 'em," said Jim Dent decisively. "We shall never
see 'em again."

And Jim's words proved to be right. Th