nderstand
that they would lay by work for the day, and become his guides. Jack
patted them on the back, and gave them another couple of rupees apiece
to strengthen them in this excellent resolution.

When he had finished his meal, Jack sat down again on the heap of
grass to await the pleasure of his companions. The second man had not
eaten, but he soon despatched his portion of rice, and then they were
ready for the road.

They left the cave, and the two Panthays led the way down the ravine,
retracing the line the elephants had taken in coming into this part of
the country.

"That's good," thought Jack. "We're striking on the road back at
once. I wish I knew the name of the village where the festival was
held, but I'm pretty certain to find someone in the place these chaps
come from who can tell me. People were marching to the feast from a
much greater distance away than this can be."

Their progress was slow, for the day was one of scorching heat. The
naked Panthays slipped through the jungle as easily as the monkeys
skipped through the trees, but Jack could not move at any speed. As
the sun approached high noon a halt was called in shade of a thicket
on a little ridge, where the air was fresher than in the dark,
steaming hollows. Here they stayed for three hours, and Jack, after he
had eaten the meal the Panthays prepared, dozed in the shade.

When he saw his guides gathering their baggage and packing it into the
big basket which one carried slung over his shoulders, Jack sprang to
his feet, stretched himself, and strolled forward half a dozen yards.
They had halted beside a narrow path which crossed the ridge, and he
wished to see toward what kind of country below the path led.

The bushes thinned, and he saw that a vast plain was opening out
before him. But he did not leave the cover of the edge of the thicket.
Something moving below caught his eye, and he parted the tall shoots
of a bush before him, and peeped through the huge trails of pink and
crimson convolvuli which festooned the branches of the low trees.
Straight before him the path ran down a steep slope and then wound
over a broad plain, showing itself here and there in the gaps between
patches of bamboo and acacias and palms. It was among a clump of
palms at some distance that Jack had caught sight of a moving object,
and he now looked eagerly to see it come into view again.

It was not that he feared any particular evil at the moment, but in
his