out to arrive at destruction at last. I have
had my last adventure. If I do not follow the king he will assuredly
call out to the guard and I shall be taken. If I go, how shall I be
delivered from the great dangers which will surround me in the Golden
Palace? I am undone whichever way I take."

Then said he to the king: "O disciple, whom I love much, I fear to enter
the Golden Palace, for this I perceive is one of my unlucky days. We
will therefore go to Pin Tha village, for I saw this morning a great
number of coolies there. They were following a great prince from the
hills. They have been traveling far to-day and are therefore heavy with
sleep, and we can despoil them of as much as we can carry away. As they
are very weary with their journey, none will know aught till they awake
in the morning."

"Upon what day wast thou born?" demanded the king, and the _boh_ said
that it was upon a Saturday.

"Then," said the king, "behold! this is a lucky day," and he drew forth
from under his jacket a horoscope, which showed that this was a lucky
day upon which a man who had been born upon a Saturday could undertake
any deed requiring great wisdom and bravery in its accomplishment, and
in spite of all that Maung Lek Byah could say the king led the way
toward the palace, and the _boh_ was obliged to follow him, which he did
with very slow and hesitating steps, for his heart had become as weak as
water.

Even as the king had said, there was a rope-ladder hanging over the
palace wall, and the _boh_ perceived in what manner the king had left
the Golden Palace, but being a very wise man he followed without opening
his mouth.

They passed through the palace courtyard and saw there a thing good to
marvel at; all the guards who ought to have been watching their lord
were slumbering, so that the king and the _boh_ gathered up all the
spears and _dahs_ belonging to these men and carried them away, hiding
them in a secret place under one of the houses.

As they entered the palace buildings the thief became so full of alarm
that all his strength left him and he could hardly walk. Then the king
saw that his follower had arrived at great fear, and as they passed the
house where the royal food was prepared, he said:

"Friend, I perceive that thou art in sore distress; come, eat the food I
am about to prepare for thee and thou wilt become strong."

"Nay," said the _boh_, "that I cannot do. Can a common man eat of the
golden food and liv