built against the palisade.
These, as Jack learned afterwards, were used as the lodgings of the
strong body of retainers whom U Saw kept about his person, his
bodyguard.

Only one small door opened upon the courtyard from the house, and
towards this Jack's pony was led. The Malay unlocked the fetters which
bound Jack's feet, and he was hauled roughly to the ground.

"March in," said Saya Chone, and pointed to the small, narrow, dark
doorway. Jack went in, staring hard into the dark before him, and
wondering what fate would befall him in this great, lonely house to
which he had been led in so strange a fashion, and through such wild
adventures. He found himself in a small, dusky hall, lighted only by
one tiny window, and that heavily barred with iron. The door was now
closed and bolted behind him, and he was taken up a narrow flight of
tortuous stairs. Then he was conducted along a maze of narrow
passages, being led now and again through doors which Saya Chone
unlocked and carefully locked again after them. The stone walls, the
iron bars which covered every opening, the narrow passages, the locked
doors, all told of the caution of U Saw, he who trusted no one, and
suspected all.

At last they arrived before a narrow door, heavily banded with iron,
and fastened by a huge bar of teak. Before it squatted a little man in
blue, with a big naked _dah_ across his knees. Saya Chone spoke to him
and it sounded like a password, for the man sprang to his feet and
stepped aside. The great bar of teak was drawn from its staples, and
the door was opened. The Malay thrust Jack into the room, and the door
was at once closed and barred behind him.

Jack now found himself in a bare stone cell, lighted only by one small
window eight feet or more from the ground. There was nothing in the
place save a small bench in one corner, and he sat down on this and
awaited the next movement of his captors. For full three hours he sat
there, and had begun to wonder whether they had forgotten him, when
the door was suddenly opened and the Strangler appeared, attended by a
couple of the bodyguard. The Malay beckoned to Jack to come forward,
and the latter went.

He was now led into a large room, where a tall, stout man sat on a
heap of rich cushions, and Jack knew by the deference paid to him that
the latter was U Saw, the Ruby King. The room was lighted by a couple
of large lamps, for the dusk had fallen, and the English lad was led
into the brig