ry, and
take up a field or two, and perhaps become headmen ourselves,
before very long."

"Well, I am sure I wish you all well," Stanley said. "You have all
been very kind to me, since I joined you; and I shall be glad to
think of you all as settled quietly down in your villages, rather
than as remaining here when, some day or other, you might all be
captured and harm come to you."

The next morning Stanley started with Meinik, who was a native of a
small village on the river, some forty miles below Ava, and who had
resolved to accompany him down to Rangoon.

"I shall be able to get a boat and some nets, for a pound or two of
lead. If we are hailed, I can do the talking; and can land and buy
provisions, if wanted. I have arranged with my comrades to take my
share of the silver and lead we have stored up, at once; for it is
likely that they will also have gone to their homes before I shall
have returned, and we have changed everything into money, except
what we took yesterday."

Before starting Stanley was again dyed, and the tattoo marks
imitated--far more carefully than before, three or four of the men
operating upon him, at once. His face was almost entirely covered
with these marks. Some liquid was applied that extracted the colour
from his eyebrows, and left them snow white. Some of his hair was
similarly treated and, looking at himself in a pool of water,
Stanley did not in the slightest degree recognize himself; and felt
certain that no one would suspect him of being the young English
captive.

Resuming his peasant's cloth, he took a hearty farewell of the band
and started with Meinik. The latter carried a bundle, slung on his
gun. It contained some clothes, and did not look heavy; but in the
centre were two parcels that weighed some forty pounds. Stanley
carried a bundle with his other clothes, and several pounds of
rice.

Two days' walking took them to Meinik's village. Once out of the
forest they travelled at night, and reached the village just as the
people were astir. The place consisted of ten or twelve huts, and
Meinik created quite an excitement among the few people who
inhabited it. These consisted of two or three old men, some women,
and children.

"Where have you been for the last year and half, Meinik, if I may
ask?"

"Working near Ava," he said; "but as I should have to go to war if
I had remained there, I thought that I would come back, and see how
you all were. I have saved a little mo