his stain, I have no doubt I
shall be able to take you on board one of the ships-of-war.

"And now, will you let me know what you are thinking of doing? I
told the general what service you had rendered me, and he asked me
what you were going to do. I told him that, as yet, I did not know
whether you were going to stay here, or go back again."

"Are you going to stay here?"

"I think so--at any rate, for a time. I do not know where the uncle
I have told you about is, at present. At any rate, while this war
is going on he can do very little trade, and can manage very well
without me."

"As long as you stay here, I shall stay," the Burman said. "If I
went back, I should have to fight against your people; and I don't
want to do that. I have no quarrel with them and, from what I see,
I am not so sure as I was that we shall drive you into the sea. You
have beaten us, whenever you have fought; and I would rather stay
with you, than be obliged to fight against you.

"Not many men want to fight. We heard that in the villages, and
that those who have not got wives and children held, as hostages
for them, get away from the army and hide in the woods.

"You will be a great man now and, if you will let me stop, I will
be your servant."

"I will gladly keep you with me, Meinik, if you are willing to
stay; and I am sure that you will be better off, here, than out in
the woods, and a good deal safer. At any rate, stay until after
your people make their next attack. You will see then how useless
it is for them to fight against us. When we can attack them in
their stockades, although they are ten to one against us, and drive
them out after a quarter of an hour's fighting; you may be sure
that in the open ground, without defences, they will have no chance
whatever.

"I hope they will soon get tired of fighting, and that the court
will make peace. We did not want to fight with them--it was they
who attacked us but, now that we have had all the expense of coming
here, we shall go on fighting till the emperor agrees to make
peace; but I don't think that we shall ever go out of Rangoon,
again, and believe that we shall also hold the ports in Tenasserim
that we have captured."

"The emperor will never agree to that," Meinik said, shaking his
head positively.

"Then if he does not, he will see that we shall go up the river to
Ava and, in the end, if he goes on fighting we shall capture the
whole country; and rule over it, just as