at you have seen in the market, you will know how much food can
be got for a small amount of lead. I would that I could do more for
you, and assist your flight."

"You have done much indeed, very much and, should I regain my
friends, I will endeavour to do as much by one of your countrymen,
for your sake. I hope that, when this war is over, I may meet you
again."

"I hope so," the Burman said warmly. "I cannot but think that you
will succeed in getting away."

"My son," the old priest said, when Stanley returned to his cell,
"I am going to my prayers. I always rise at this hour, and pray
till morning; therefore you may as well lay yourself down on these
leaves. There is another cell, like this, in the opposite corner of
the temple. In the morning you can cut boughs, and roof it like
this; and make your bed there. There is no room for another, here;
and it will doubtless be more pleasant for you to have a place to
yourself, where you can go and come as you like; for in the day
women come up to consult me, and ask for my prayers--but mind how
you enter it for the first time as, like as not, there will be
snakes sheltering there."

Stanley lay awake for a time, listening to the monotonous voice of
the priest as he repeated his prayers; but his senses soon
wandered, and he slept soundly till daybreak.

His first step was to cut a stout stick, and he then proceeded to
the other cell, which was partially blocked up with stone from the
fallen roof. It took him two hours to carry this stuff out, and he
killed no less than nine snakes that he disturbed in his work. The
prospect of sleeping in a place so frequented was not a pleasant
one, especially as the cell had no door to it; and he resolved at
once to erect some sort of bed place, where he might be beyond
their reach. For this purpose he cut two poles, each three or four
inches longer than the cell. One end of each he sharpened, and
drove in between the interstices of the stone, at a distance of
some two feet and a half apart and four feet from the ground. The
other ends he hammered with a heavy stone against the opposite
wall, until they would go down no farther. Then he split up some
more wood and lashed strips, almost touching each other, underneath
the two poles, by the aid of some strong creepers. Then he filled
up the bed place, between the poles, with dry leaves.

One end of the bed was some inches higher than the other. This was
immaterial, and he felt satis