of
his art, that sharp, neat twist which breaks his victim's spinal
column as if he was snapping a bit of dry stick."

Saya Chone turned to go, but paused at the door and looked over his
shoulder.

"I heard you shouting as I came in," he said. "If you have a fancy for
that amusement, pray shout as much as you like. But I ought to warn
you that it is a pure waste of breath. We have carried you nearly a
couple of miles into the jungle, and fifty times the uproar you could
make would be quite useless to attract attention."

He left the hut, and Jack sat back against the post to think over his
desperate situation. He had fallen into the hands of the very people
that he and his comrades were trying to circumvent. How they had
discovered their line of march, and been enabled to lay this clever
trap for him, he could not imagine. But one thing he saw clearly, that
U Saw's arm was very long in this country, and that his net for
information was spread abroad very widely and very successfully.

He looked across at the Strangler, and found the dark bright eyes of
the Malay fixed intently upon him. Jack had been thinking to test the
strength of the knots and the cords which bound him, but in the
presence of this keen watchman it was useless, and he bent down his
eyes in thought once more.

"I am to be carried to U Saw," he thought. "Then my father must be
there already. At any rate I shall see him, I hope, and find out what
has happened to him, and how he has been treated."

Several hours now passed in complete silence. Jack's bonds chafed him
miserably, but he could do nothing to relieve himself, and the Malay
watched him with fierce alertness at every moment. Then the ricketty
door was jerked open again, and Saya Chone came in.

"It is the dark hour before the dawn," he laughed jeeringly. "A
capital time to slip away while all the revellers are sleeping, and
the forest paths are empty. Your conveyance awaits you, my lord."

He said two words to the Strangler, and drew a revolver from beneath
his jacket. He had thrown aside his disguise as a dancing girl, and
now appeared in the rich tartan silk kilt, the jacket, and turban-like
head-dress of a prosperous Burman.

"Get up," he said curtly to Jack, while the Strangler unfastened the
rope which bound the captive's feet and also that which bound his body
to the post.

Jack got up, and Saya Chone motioned to him to go outside, and Jack
went, with the Malay and the half-c