head, Jack, to keep these venomous
little brutes off as much as possible, then follow us."

Jack whipped off his Norfolk tunic and folded it about his head,
leaving himself a peep-hole to watch the guide. He did as he saw them
do. He dropped to the ground, wriggled under the net, then sprang to
his feet and hurried beside his father, following Me Dain, who led the
way back to the patch of reeds whence he had crept. Skirting the reeds
he raced at full speed along the edge of the swamp, keeping at the
foot of the slope which ran down to the marsh, but heading away from
the spot where Saya Chone and his attendant Kachins were posted.

The torture of that journey through the swamp was a thing which Jack
never forgot. The mosquitoes worked their way into every crevice of
the tunic he had folded about his head. They crept into his hair, down
his neck, and swarmed over his face through the breathing hole he was
compelled to leave open in front of it. The pain of their sting was
such that he had to set his teeth to keep back a growl of malediction
upon their evil fangs. Every venomous little wretch seemed to carry a
red-hot needle which it thrust joyfully into the soft flesh wherever
it happened to alight.

At last, after three hundred yards of silent scurry through this
pestilential tract, they struck hard ground, and went at full speed up
the hill-side for open country and purer air. Still following Me Dain,
who pushed on as fast as he could go, Jack and his father plunged into
a bamboo groove, and followed a narrow path. This brought them in a
few minutes to a small clearing, where the Burman paused, and all were
glad of an opportunity to draw breath, and knock off the mosquitoes
which still clung to them.

Jack sprang forward and seized the guide by the hand.

"Me Dain," he cried, "wherever have you sprung from to lend us a hand
in this fashion, just in the nick of time?"

"Ay, ay," said Mr. Haydon, "just at the moment of our hardest trial
and greatest danger. Me Dain, old fellow, we are enormously indebted
to you."

Father and son shook hands with the Burman and thanked him over and
over again, and Me Dain grinned all over his broad, pleasant face.

"Better get on," he said, "Saya Chone not far away yet."

These words recalled the fugitives to a sense of the great danger in
which they stood as long as U Saw's valley still held them, and they
hastened to follow Me Dain, who was now walking briskly forward.
Twent