r he had
lain beside it at Bhamo for three days on the trip before last.

"Say," murmured Buck, looking round on his deeply-interested
companions, "this beats the band. I didn't know U Saw had a steam
yacht of about three hundred tons, for that's what Moung San's talk
comes to. Say, Jim, my son, this clears things up a bit."

"It does that," said Dent. He turned to Jack.

"You see, sir," he remarked, "that Buck's guess hit the mark pretty
straight. I'd stake my shop that the party we want was on that yacht."

Jack nodded, with bright eyes. "It must be so," he said, but Buck was
again in conversation with the Burman.

"Do you know where the 'fire-boat' had been?" he asked.

"There was a word that U Saw had been a long cruise in the islands,"
replied Moung San.

"Been a long cruise in the islands, had he?" said Dent, in a meaning
tone. There was silence while the three white men made swift
calculations mentally.

"If the yacht is a good sea-boat," said Jack, "they would just about
have had the right time to do it, supposing they came up the river two
weeks back." He meant the voyage from the Mediterranean, and the
others nodded.

The old Burman looked from one to the other gravely. There was
something he did not understand behind this, and it was plain that he
was about to shape a question.

Buck whispered swiftly to Jack, then spoke:

"Well, Moung San, we must be going. But the son of your old patron
wished to see you and to give you a little present because you have
served his father."

Jack smiled and passed over twenty rupees. Moung San's mouth was at
once filled with thanks instead of questions, and an awkward moment
passed safely.

"I could see the old fellow was going to ask questions," remarked Jim
Dent, when they were once more in the sampan, and the big Shan was
pulling strongly across the stream. "It was a lucky stroke to stop his
mouth with the rupees."

"Yes," said Jack, "it's quite clear he knows nothing about my father's
disappearance, or he would have said something. So it was just as well
to leave him in ignorance, and escape a lot of talk. You never know
where the simplest question may lead you to."

"You don't," agreed Dent. "He may wonder why we want to know about the
Ruby King, but as long as he's in the dark about things, he'll put it
down to mere curiosity."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ATTACK ON THE SAMPAN.

Jack nodded and looked out across the wide, shadowy waste of waters