men, emerged from the trees. All paused, when they saw
the temple. The men would have drawn back at once; but the officer
shouted to them to advance, although showing small inclination to
do so, himself.

They were still standing, irresolute, when a superior officer on
horseback, followed by some fifty footmen, came up the path. He
shouted orders for them to search the temple and, as the fear of
him was even greater than their dread of the spirits, the whole of
the men made their way over the fallen stones, and up to the face
of the rock. They first entered the chamber where the horses had
been stabled. The officer who had first arrived went in with his
men and, coming out, reported to his senior that there had been a
fire made, and that some horses had also been there; but that three
weeks, or a month, must have passed since then.

"Are you sure of that?"

"Quite certain, my lord. It is extraordinary that anyone should
have dared to enter there, still less to stable horses when, as
everyone knows, the temple is haunted by evil spirits."

"I care nothing for spirits," the officer said. "It is men we are
in search of. Go and look into any other chambers there may be."

At this moment a deep, mournful sound was heard. Louder and louder
it rose, and then gradually died away. The soldiers stood as if
paralysed. Even the high official--who had been obliged to leave
his horse, and make his way across the fallen blocks on
foot--stepped back a pace, with an expression of awe. He soon
recovered himself, and shouted angrily to the men to go on. But
again the dirge-like noise rose, louder and louder. It swelled, and
then as gradually died away; but this time with a quavering
modulation.

The men looked up, and round. Some gazed at the upper part of the
rock, some straight ahead, while others turned round and faced the
forest.

"Search!" the officer shouted, furiously. "Evil spirits or no evil
spirits, not a man shall stir from here, until the place is
searched."

Then rose a shrill, vibrating sound, as if of eerie laughter. Not
even the officer's authority, or the fear of punishment, could
restrain the soldiers. With cries of alarm, they rushed across the
ruins and plunged into the forest; followed, at a rate which he
tried in vain to make dignified, by the officer who, as soon as he
reached his horse, leapt upon it and galloped away.

The Burmese keenly appreciate a joke and, as soon as the troops had
fled, the vill