ey had at last eluded the
pursuit of the blood-thirsty little Kachins.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE VILLAGE FESTIVAL.

For three days the strong arms of Me Dain and the two Shan boatmen
drove the river boat up the stream, and every day's journey brought
them nearer to the mountains where the rubies were found, and among
whose recesses they believed that Jack's father was a close prisoner
in the hands of men who coveted rubies above all things.

Jack said very little to his companions about the object of their
journey, but his own thoughts were full of it at every waking moment.
Since he had discovered that U Saw, the Ruby King, had a steam yacht,
and that it had returned and gone up river shortly before their own
arrival, he had felt no doubt whatever in his own mind as to his
father's fate. He knew that the great ruby expert was on that yacht a
close captive, and that he had been carried by secret ways, through
the jungle and over the hills, to the place where U Saw was
all-powerful, and would do his utmost to wrest from Thomas Haydon the
knowledge which the latter certainly possessed of a great ruby-mine.

Very good. They, too, would push into the Ruby King's country, and do
their utmost to foil his plans and snatch his prisoner from his
clutch. Hour after hour Jack thought over the situation, while his eye
rested almost carelessly on the lovely scenes of hill-side and jungle,
past which their boat was driven.

At the end of the first day they left the main current of the river,
and poled eastwards by a network of creeks leading to the village from
which their boatmen came. For the most part the water-way was very
solitary. Here and there they passed a village, but, as a rule, no
life, save that of wild animals, was to be seen. Monkeys chattered in
the trees over their heads, panthers and deer came down to the stream
to drink, tigers roared in sullen fashion in the jungle, and once, a
troop of wild elephants crossed a ford before them in stately line.

With the evening of the third day the boatmen reached their native
village, and the travellers stepped ashore. A new hut, built of reeds
and cane, was set apart at once for their use, and, after supper, they
talked over their future movements before turning in.

"How do we stand now as regards striking the course my father followed
from Mogok?" asked Jack.

Jim Dent, who knew the country well, cross-examined Me Dain for a few
moments.

"We ought to hit it to-