UP THE RIVER.
It was on a Tuesday evening that Risley and Jack entered Dent's shop
in Rangoon: late on the Thursday afternoon the three comrades stepped
out of the train at Mandalay.
"I know a little place down by the river where we can stay quietly,"
said Dent, and they took a carriage and drove down to the banks of the
broad Irrawaddy. Here, at a native rest-house in a riverside village,
they set down their baggage and made a hearty meal in a room whose
window overlooked the noble stream with its crowd of craft.
Before they ate, Dent had an interview with the master of the house, a
short, stout Burman in silken kilt and headgear of flaming scarlet,
and their business was put in hand at once. The Burman sent a native
boatman off to see if Moung San had reached Mandalay.
The meal was scarcely ended before the light sampan was back with good
news. Moung San had been in Mandalay the last two days, and now lay at
his accustomed anchorage.
"That's capital," said Dent. "We'll give old Moung a look up before
the evening's much older."
Half an hour later all three embarked upon the sampan whose owner had
found out the anchorage of Moung San, and the tiny craft was thrust
into the river and pulled across the flowing stream. Jack looked with
much interest on the pretty, picturesque little craft with its bow and
stern curving upwards, and on its boatman, a strong Shan clad in wide
trousers and a great flapping hat, who stood up to his couple of oars
and sent the light skiff along at a good speed. A pull of a mile or
more brought them to the _hnau_, a big native boat moored near the
farther shore of the wide stream. The sampan was directed towards the
lofty and splendidly-carved prow of the _hnau_ and brought to rest.
Now there looked over the side a dark-faced old Burman, whose face
broke into smiles at sight of his old acquaintances.
"Hello, Moung San," cried Dent. "We've come to pay you a visit."
"Very glad, very glad," replied the Burman. "Come up, come up."
They climbed at once to the deck of the _hnau_, where Moung San shook
hands with them very heartily. When he heard Jack's name he smiled and
showed all his teeth, stained black with betel-chewing.
"Me know your father," he said, and shook Jack's hand again. "Very
good man, very good man."
Amidships there was a large cabin, roofed with plaited cane, built up
on the _hnau_. Moung San invited them to enter it, and all four went
in and sat down.
"Now, Moung San," began Jim Dent "You listen to me. You know the
ruby-mines well, don't you?"
"Yes," replied Moung San. "Do much trade with the miners for many
years."
"Do you know a man named Saya Chone?"
"Yes," said the trader. "Know him. Don't like him."
"Who is he with now?"
"With U Saw, the man they call the Ruby King."
"U Saw," murmured Dent reflectively. "He's jumped into notice since I
was up here last. What sort of character has U Saw, Moung San?"
The Burman lowered his voice and looked uneasily round to see if any
of his crew were within earshot.
"Very dangerous man," he said, shaking his head, "if he hears of one
of the hill-miners finding good ruby, that man sure to lose it,
perhaps lose his head same time. U Saw has many Kachins who follow
him, and every Kachin carry strong, sharp _dah_ (native sword)."
"Have the police been on to him, Moung San?" asked Buck.
"The police!" Moung San laughed disdainfully. "What do the police know
about the hills and the jungle, and what goes on there? But we know.
The word goes from Kachin to Shan, and from Shan to Burman, over the
country, up and down the river. We know."
"Where does U Saw sell his rubies?" asked Dent.
"In China," replied the Burman. "Takes them along the great road to
China from Burmah over the mountains. Sells them there for big, big
money. Very rich and very strong is U Saw."
Then, with scarcely a pause, Moung San came out with a piece of news
that made his hearers jump.
"When I am at Prome two weeks ago, the 'fire-boat' of U Saw pass me,
and go up the river."
"Fire-boat!" cried Jim Dent. "U Saw possesses a steamer. How big,
Moung San?"
Moung San went into details. He compared the "fire-boat" with the size
of his _hnau_, he compared it with a river-steamer which now went
puffing past, he described it with the greatest minuteness, for he had
lain beside it at Bhamo for three days on the trip before last.
"Say," murmured Buck, looking round on his deeply-interested
companions, "this beats the band. I didn't know U Saw had a steam
yacht of about three hundred tons, for that's what Moung San's talk
comes to. Say, Jim, my son, this clears things up a bit."
"It does that," said Dent. He turned to Jack.
"You see, sir," he remarked, "that Buck's guess hit the mark pretty
straight. I'd stake my shop that the party we want was on that yacht."
Jack nodded, with bright eyes. "It must be so," he said, but Buck was
again in conversation with the Burman.
"Do you know where the 'fire-boat' had been?" he asked.
"There was a word that U Saw had been a long cruise in the islands,"
replied Moung San.
"Been a long cruise in the islands, had he?" said Dent, in a meaning
tone. There was silence while the three white men made swift
calculations mentally.
"If the yacht is a good sea-boat," said Jack, "they would just about
have had the right time to do it, supposing they came up the river two
weeks back." He meant the voyage from the Mediterranean, and the
others nodded.
The old Burman looked from one to the other gravely. There was
something he did not understand behind this, and it was plain that he
was about to shape a question.
Buck whispered swiftly to Jack, then spoke:
"Well, Moung San, we must be going. But the son of your old patron
wished to see you and to give you a little present because you have
served his father."
Jack smiled and passed over twenty rupees. Moung San's mouth was at
once filled with thanks instead of questions, and an awkward moment
passed safely.
"I could see the old fellow was going to ask questions," remarked Jim
Dent, when they were once more in the sampan, and the big Shan was
pulling strongly across the stream. "It was a lucky stroke to stop his
mouth with the rupees."
"Yes," said Jack, "it's quite clear he knows nothing about my father's
disappearance, or he would have said something. So it was just as well
to leave him in ignorance, and escape a lot of talk. You never know
where the simplest question may lead you to."
"You don't," agreed Dent. "He may wonder why we want to know about the
Ruby King, but as long as he's in the dark about things, he'll put it
down to mere curiosity."