AND THE THIEF,

XXXV. THE FLIGHT FROM THE VALLEY,

XXXVI. PENNED IN THE PASS,

XXXVII. HOW THEY MADE A ROPE,

XXXVIII. IN THE DESERTED CITY,

XXXIX. THE SECRET CHAMBER,

XL. THE BATTLE ON THE STAIRS,

XLI. THE SECRET PASSAGE,

XLII. IN THE COURTYARD,

XLIII. THE FACE AT THE DOORWAY,

XLIV. HOW THINGS ENDED,

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS.

IN RANGOON, _Frontispiece_

THE ATTACK ON THE MONASTERY,

THE DANGER AT THE FORD,

THE DANCING GIRL,

A SUDDEN ALARM,

THE RESCUE OF THE NATIVE CHILD,

THE MIDNIGHT THIEF,

THE INTERCEPTED FLIGHT,

* * * * *

JACK HAYDON'S QUEST.

CHAPTER I.

THE ATTACK ON THE HEATH.

Jack Haydon, prefect of Rushmere School and captain of the first
fifteen, walked swiftly out of the school gates and turned along the
high road. He had leave to go to the little town of Longhampton, three
miles away, to visit a day-scholar, a great friend of his, now on the
sick list.

He was alone, and he swung along at a cracking pace, for he could walk
as well as he could run, and a finer three-quarter had never been
known at Rushmere. He was a tall, powerful lad, nearly nineteen years
of age, five foot ten and a half inches in his stockings, and turning
the scale at twelve stone five. At the present moment he carried not
an ounce of spare flesh, for he was in training for the great match,
Rushmere _v._ Repton, and his weight was compact of solid bone,
muscle, and sinew. As he stepped along the highway, moving with the
easy grace of a well-built athlete, he looked the very picture of a
handsome English lad, at one of the finest moments of his life, the
point where youth and manhood meet.

The road he followed was called a high road, but the name clung to it
from old use rather than because of present service. Eighty years
before it had been a famous coaching road, along which the galloping
teams had whirled the mails, but now it had fallen into decay, and was
little used except by people passing from Rushmere to Longhampton. A
mile from the school it ran across a lonely, unenclosed piece of
heath, the side of the way being bordered by clumps of holly, thorn,
and furze.

Halfway across this desolate stretch of country, Jack was surprised by
seeing a man step from behind a thick holly bush and place himself
directly in the lad's way. As Jack approached, the man held up h