ent which thundered below.

"I'll go down now, father," said Jack, "and hold the rope steady for
you." He slipped over the side and was gone. Hand below hand he swung
himself swiftly down the rope, and was on the ledge in a few moments.
He held the rope steady, and Mr. Haydon descended in safety.

They left the rope where it hung, and crept forward along the narrow
ledge. Jack led the way, the woman came next, and Mr. Haydon brought
up the rear. There was very little room on the ledge, but it was sound
and smooth. It had clearly been made by the river eating away the
softer rock in times of flood. It descended gently towards the stream,
and within thirty yards it broke short off. The river was now not more
than five feet below, and Jack bent and looked into it. Then he swung
himself off the ledge, and dropped into the stream with a cry of
delight. It was clear and shallow, and he stood in it barely
knee-deep. He helped the woman down, his father sprang after them, and
they all waded on in a shallow backwater, where the furious torrent of
the main stream died away to an easy flow.

Moving on in this manner, they gained the farther side of the ravine,
which had been spanned by the shelf-road. Here a vast mass of rock and
boulders lay piled along the cliff wall.

"That's the landslip which carried away the road," said Mr. Haydon.

Jack eyed it critically.

"We can get up into the pass again by it," he said. "It'll be a rough
climb, but we can do it."

Jack was right. They did it. It took them an hour's hard climbing, but
at last they stood at the point where the shelf-road had joined the
main path along the pass. Here they rested awhile, for the steep climb
under a burning sun had been very exhausting.

Then Jack sprang to his feet "Come on," he cried cheerily. "We'll hit
on Buck and Jim's camp yet, and with them at our back we'll stand off
U Saw and his men easily enough."

"I think I can strike towards it all right once we clear this path,"
said his father. Mr. Haydon had had much talk with Me Dain about the
spot where he had left Buck and Jim, and he believed that he could
find the place.

"Poor old Me Dain," said Jack, in a tone of bitter sorrow; "if we'd
only brought him up with us out of the fix there, it would have been
all right. He was a fine, brave chap."

"He was," said Mr. Haydon; "it is a terrible loss to us that he has
gone."

They pushed on in silence, thinking of the good, faithful Burman who