elate, she spoke in perfect English.

"I know what you seek," she said, "and I can help you."

Jack's surprise was so great that, for a moment, he could not answer,
and the veiled figure went on:

"Would you not like to know where the object of your search is?"

"How do you know that I seek someone?" said Jack in wonder.

"Oh, I know," murmured the dancing girl with a soft, light laugh. "I
will go a little further. Would you not like to know where your
father, Thomas Haydon, is imprisoned, and what is happening to him?"

For a moment the whole glittering scene of lamps and gaiety went round
before Jack's eyes. Then he pulled himself up steady once more. This
savoured of the utterly marvellous, that a dancing girl in this
village which he had never seen before, should glide up to him and
tell him the innermost secret of his heart, the purpose of his quest.

"Who are you, and how did you come to know such things?" said Jack.

"Oh," said the girl lightly, "in this strange land we can do many
strange things. But I cannot talk to you long. Do you wish, I ask you
once more, to gain tidings of your father?"

"There is nothing I wish for more upon earth," returned Jack
earnestly, for it was idle to pretend that the girl was wrong, and try
to hide his secret. It was known only too clearly to this strange
creature in the yellow robe, with a score of silver bangles tinkling
on her arm. Jack turned his head towards his companions who had
strolled on, and were now a dozen yards away, and half hidden by a
group of villagers standing before the shrine.

"No," said the girl, laying her hand on Jack's arm, "no, you must not
call to them. I do not wish to talk to your Burman guide. It would
place me in great danger if it became known that I had warned you. If
you do not listen to me, and alone, I shall vanish into the crowd, and
you will never see me again, or learn that which you long to know."

The girl's hint that she stood in danger by warning him, at once
checked the call on Jack's lips. He looked at her keenly, but could
only see a pair of lustrous eyes flashing through the folds of
delicate muslin, her features he could not make out at all. His brain
was in a whirl. Here seemed a most extraordinary, a most wonderful
chance to gain news of his father, but at the same time his reason
bade him be careful.

Suppose he were to seize the girl and declare that she must tell him
at once what she knew? But Jack's feelings revo