y slept for three or four hours in
the heat of the day; and then, pushing on, found themselves before
sunset on what seemed to them the highest point of the divide. To
the right they could see the flat country stretching towards the
Irrawaddy, to the left the ground was more sharply undulating. Two
miles away was a stream of fair size, which they judged to be the
river that runs down to Pegu, and afterwards joins the Rangoon
river below the town.

Stanley thought that the hill on which they stood was some five
hundred feet above the low country they had left. A great part of
the hills was covered with trees although, at the point where they
had made their way up, the hillside was bare. They went on until
they entered the forest, and there set to work to chop firewood.
Meinik carried a tinderbox, and soon had a fire blazing, and by its
side they piled a great stock of wood.

"I do not know that there are any leopards so far south as this,"
he said, "but at any rate it will be safer to keep a big fire
blazing. I never used to think much about leopards but, ever since
I had that great beast's foot upon my back, I have had a horror of
them."

The next morning they continued their journey south, going along
boldly and passing through several villages.

"You are late for the war," an old man said, as they went through
one of them.

"I know we are," Meinik replied, "but we were away with a caravan
of traders when the order came; and so, instead of going down the
river, we have had to journey on foot. But we shall be there in
time. From what we have heard, there has not been much fighting,
yet."

"No; the white barbarians are all shut up in Rangoon. We have not
attacked them in earnest, but we shall soon do so and, moreover,
they will soon be all starved, for the country has been swept clear
of all cattle for twenty miles round, the villages deserted, and
everything laid waste; and we hear that half their number are laid
up with sickness, and that a great number have died. I wish that I
were younger, that I, too, could help to destroy the insolent foes
who have dared to set foot on our sacred soil."

There was no need for haste, now, and they travelled by easy stages
until, by the smoke rising from different parts of the forest, they
knew that they were approaching the spot where the Burmese forces
lay around Rangoon and, indeed, could see the great pagoda rising
above the surrounding country. They had heard, at the