y minutes of swift and silent progress brought them to a native
hut in a little clearing.

"Here you must stay for a time," said the Burman.

"But will it be safe, Me Dain?" murmured Mr. Haydon. "Whoever lives
here must belong body and soul to U Saw. We shall be informed upon at
once."

"No, no," said the Burman emphatically, "not by this woman. She tell
nothing. She help you all she can. She is the wife of the man who was
killed in the swamp. The young sahib save her child. She never forget
that. Oh, no, I settle with her to-night. She keep you safe."

Mr. Haydon said no more, and all three crept under cover of a patch of
plantains to the shelter of the broad eaves of the thatch of reeds
which covered the dwelling. Here they found that a hole had been made
in the cane walls, and they crept into the house, thus avoiding the
entrance by the door, which faced another house at some little
distance away.

Inside the place they found no one but the woman and her child. She
came forward and _shekoed_ again and again, and Mr. Haydon, who had a
fair knowledge of the language of the country, spoke to her and
thanked her for the refuge which she offered to them.

At one end of the cottage there was a rude loft of logs where the
little household had stored their stock of rice and other necessaries
when the time of harvest came. The loft was now partly empty, and at
its farther end there was plenty of room for two men to lie in hiding
behind a row of tall earthen jars in which the paddy was stored after
threshing.

In this place of safety Me Dain bestowed them, assuring them that no
one ever went to the loft save the woman herself, and that he must be
off at once to show himself at the local monastery in his character of
_pothoodaw_, and so avert all suspicion that he had been concerned in
the escape.

"The monks give me a room," said Me Dain. "I jump through the window,
and jump back. No one knows then that I leave it. Must be careful. U
Saw and Saya Chone, both bad men, very bad men."

We must now return to that very bad man Saya Chone, who was also about
to be a very disappointed and furious one. On the stroke of the hour
he reappeared at the brink of the slope, just after the fugitives had
vanished round the patch of reeds. Had they not muffled their heads
they would have heard his call to Mr. Haydon. Had he not been thickly
surrounded by the smoke of the green boughs which partly kept off the
clouds of venomous ass