ay in sunlight. For the most
part the narrow cleft through the hills lay in gloomy shadow of the
precipices which bordered it on either hand, but the climbing sun
shot pencils of light here and there into the deep rift. Across one of
these sunny patches a line of tiny figures was streaming. Only for a
moment were they visible. They crossed the field of light, then
vanished into the huddle of rocks which littered the foot of the pass.

"Fifteen," said Jack, as the last of them disappeared.

Mr. Haydon whistled sharply and nodded.

"We've travelled fast, Jack," said he, with a troubled brow, "but
these hard-bitten, wiry, little mountaineers have travelled faster. We
must put our best foot foremost. It will be fatal to be caught in this
narrow gully between the rocks. They will get round us and rush us
from all sides at once."

"I thought we'd got a much better start than this," said Jack.

"So did I," replied his father, "but it has turned out otherwise."

Me Dain's words were short but to the point.

"Kachins!" he cried. "Come on," and pushed ahead with the woman, who
was off like a deer at the first hint of danger.

"How far to the end of the pass, Me Dain?" called Mr. Haydon.

"Not more than two miles, sahib," replied the Burman.

"Good," said Jack, "if we can only clear the pass we may find some
means of throwing them off. In the pass they have us tight between the
walls."

"That's it, Jack," returned his father, and then they hurried over the
wild broken track in silence.

Half a mile farther on Jack pointed forward. "Hallo!" he said,
"here's another of those roads built along the precipice. I hope it
will be a bit sounder than the last."

In another moment they arrived at a stretch of the path where the road
was carried in mid-air over a deep chasm in the bed of the pass. They
had already passed two such places, and at each point the road was
constructed in the same manner. Holes had been cut horizontally in the
sheer face of the precipice and huge beams driven into them. About six
feet of each beam was left projecting from the hole, and upon these
outstanding bars, smaller beams were laid parallel to the face of the
rock. The earth had been heaped on all, and the result was a narrow
road running along the cliff like a shelf.

The last they had passed had been very rotten, and Me Dain had gone
through one hole up to his arm-pits. He had only been saved from a
fall into the yawning gulf below by the