r week, you will be more
fit to move than you are, at present. I should not like to carry
you far, as you are now. Besides, if we had pushed on, they would
have been sure to overtake us; for these fellows can run like
hares."

"But why should not they find us here, Stanley?"

"Well, of course they may do so, but the entrance to this chamber
is ten feet above the ground; and another thing is, they have all
sorts of superstitions about the place. Nothing would induce them
to approach it, after nightfall; and even in the daytime, they
don't like coming near it. Lastly, if they do find us, it will take
them all their time to force their way in. I have five men, and two
young fellows quite capable of fighting; then there are your two
guards, Meinik, the trooper, and myself. So you see, we muster
twelve. We have two guns, and a brace of pistols, and spears for us
all; and if we cannot defend that narrow passage, against any
number of Burmans, we shall deserve our fate.

"Besides, there is another, and even narrower door, in the corner
behind you. They would have to force that; and in the chamber
beyond there is a narrow, straight staircase, some forty feet high,
which a man with an axe ought to be able to hold against an army.
They are taking the stores up there, now. We have got provisions
and water for a month. When everything is straight, there we shall
carry you up and, unless they sit down in front of this place and
regularly starve us out, we are as safe as if we were in Prome."

"I wish to goodness you had that hideous dye off you, Stanley. I
know it is you by your voice but, what with the colour, and all
that tattooing, and your extraordinary hair, I don't know you in
the least."

"I am in just the same disguise as that in which I made my way down
from Ava," Stanley laughed. "I felt very uncomfortable, at first,
with nothing on but this short petticoat thing; but I have got
accustomed to it, now, and I am bound to say that it is cool and
comfortable.

"Now, tell me about your wounds."

"They are not very serious, Stanley. I had a lick across the head
with a sword--that was the one that brought me down--and a slice
taken out of my arm from the elbow, nearly up to the shoulder. Also
a spear-wound in the side; but that was a trifle, as it glanced off
the ribs. If I had been left as I fell, and somebody had bound up
my wounds at once, I should have been all right by this time. The
fellows did bandage them up, t