propose that all the stones we find we will give to our friend.'

"They all agreed at once for, as you know, they all like you; and
rubies, as I told you, are of little use to us, for we cannot
dispose of them without great risk. So they did as I proposed, and
had good fortune. Twelve out of the number had gems hidden about
them, and some of them a good lot. You need not hesitate to take
them, for you may be sure that they bought them, for next to
nothing, from poor fellows who had risked their lives to hide them.

"There they are. We have not looked at them, but just emptied the
parcels into this bag, as we found them. Of course, they are all
rough stones. You must take them as a present, from all of us; and
as a proof that a Burman, even if he is but a robber, is grateful
for such a service as that you rendered him."

Stanley felt that he could not refuse a gift so offered, even
though the goods were stolen. As Meinik said, the gems were of
little use to the robbers, since they were afraid to try and
dispose of them; and their owners had themselves broken the law in
having purchased them, and had doubtless given sums bearing no
proportion to their real value. Therefore he thanked Meinik very
heartily; and also, after they had had their meal, the rest of the
band, who made very light of the matter.

The things were useless to them, they said. If it had been silver,
or even lead, it would have been different; but to endeavour to
sell rubies they had to risk their lives. The goods that they had
got that day would fetch them far more money than the rubies, and
could be sold without difficulty and, as soon as the war was over
and they could go down to their villages, the band would break up.
They had enough silver and lead hidden away to keep them for years,
even if they never did any work, whatever.

"What do you do with it, when you get back?"

"We hide it. It would never do to enter a village with ten or
twelve pounds' weight of silver, and three or four times as much
lead, for the headman might take it into his head to have us
searched. So we generally dig a hole at the foot of a tree, in some
quiet spot; and take, perhaps, a pound of silver and two or three
of lead with us. A gift of half that silver is enough to convince
the headman that we are honest fellows, who have been working hard
since we went away; and from time to time we can go to our store
and get what we want from it, and can build a house and mar