imself.

Jack saw, to his immense relief and delight, that his elephant would
pass directly below the branch where the second Panthay was now
perched. As the pad-elephant jogged up, closing the file of the
retreating herd, the native, swinging himself from the bough, dropped
with the greatest ease and certainty into the howdah.

For a moment the Panthay, a short, strong, powerful man, looked upon
Jack and his bonds with great surprise. Then he thrust forward the
head of his axe, which he had carried with him all the time, and laid
the keen edge against the cords which bound Jack to the howdah. In a
trice Jack was free. He flung his arms up thankfully, but dropped them
again with a groan. They were so stiff that all movement was painful.

He thanked the Panthay again and again, and patted his bare, smooth
shoulder, and the native grinned and bowed before him. Then the
wood-cutter pointed to the ground, and Jack nodded. He saw that the
man wished him to drop from the howdah and leave the elephant. Jack
was perfectly willing. It was plain that the pad-elephant meant to
stick to his new friends and follow them wherever they roved.

The Panthay slipped down the right flank of the elephant and dropped
to his feet like a cat. Jack was wretchedly stiff, but he also climbed
over the side of the carriage which had been his prison, and let
himself slide over the elephant's tail.

"I shall stand the least chance of being trodden on that way," thought
Jack. He dropped to the ground all right, for the pad-elephant took
not the least notice of their movements. But as for keeping his feet,
that was impossible. He rolled to the earth, for his ankles were even
more numbed than his wrists.

At this instant the second Panthay ran up. The natives seemed to
understand at once what was wrong, for both began to rub Jack's ankles
and wrists briskly. Jack had to set his teeth to keep back a cry of
pain. After the long numbing confinement, it was pure agony when the
blood began to move freely once more, but he grinned and bore it, and
soon began to feel better for the treatment.

When he could stand up and walk a little, the Panthays beckoned to him
to accompany them, and they went down the ravine, following the track
used by the wild inhabitants of the place. The dusk was falling over
the jungle when they reached the camp of the Panthays, a deep cave in
the side of the ravine, where a few simple cooking-pots and a small
store of rice fur