ow agreed that they could safely lie down, and that it would not be
necessary for them to rig up their blankets as hammocks, as they had
done on the first two nights.

Chapter 6: A Perilous Adventure.

They retraced their steps, without adventure, until they reached the
village they had first stopped at.

"There are soldiers here," Surajah exclaimed, as they entered.

"We can't help it, now," Dick said. "There is nothing for it, but to
go on boldly. I suppose that Tippoo has sent troops into all these
frontier villages, to prevent any chance of news of his movements
being taken to the plains.

"Ah! There is the old chap who spoke to us last time. Let us stop at
once, and talk with him."

"So you are back again," the peasant said, as they came up to him.

"Yes," Surajah replied. "We told you we should come back here, unless
we got news of some tiger being marked down near one of the other
villages. We have been as far as the edge of the jungle, and although
we have heard of several, not one of them seems to be in the habit of
coming back regularly to the same spot; so we thought we could not do
better than return here, at once, and make it our headquarters.

"I see you have got some soldiers here."

"Yes," the old man said, discontentedly, "and a rough lot they are.
They demand food, and instead of paying for it in money, their officer
gives us bits of paper with some writing on them. He says that, when
they go, we are to take them to him, and he will give us an order
equal to the whole of them, for which we can receive money from the
treasury at Seringapatam.

"A nice thing, that! None of us have ever been to Seringapatam, and
should not know what to do when we got there. Moreover, there would be
no saying whether one would ever come back again. It is terrible.
Besides, we have only grain enough for ourselves, and shall have to
send down to the plains to buy more; and where the money is to come
from, nobody can tell."

"I think I could tell you how you had better proceed, if you will take
us into your house," Surajah said. "This is not a place for talking.
There are four or five soldiers there, watching us."

The old man entered the house, and closed the door behind them.

"How would you counsel us to proceed?" he asked, as soon as they had
seated themselves on a divan, formed of a low bank of beaten earth,
with a thick covering of straw.

"It is simple enough," Surajah said. "One of you would tak