A CLOSE CALL.
Jack did not rise at once. As he sank, the words of Buck flashed into
his mind, and he dived and swam swiftly down stream. When he could
stay under no longer, he came very slowly to the surface and put out
his face. He drew a deep breath and looked eagerly about for the
enemy, dreading to see a heavy oar poised against the sky to beat a
swimmer under. But there was nothing close at hand, and he trod water
and raised his head very carefully to look round.
Suddenly the splash of an oar falling upon the water came to his ears.
He looked behind him and saw the dark mass of the skiff thirty yards
away. One of the oarsmen was standing up and striking at some object
in the water. A pang went through Jack's heart as he realised that one
of his companions must be there, struggling for his life, and being
brutally beaten under. Then he saw the frightful danger in which he
stood himself. At any moment the skiff might shoot towards him. He
turned and was about to strike away when a dark object appeared within
a few yards of him down stream.
It looked like a head, and Jack struck out for it. He swam in silence,
and within half a dozen strokes had a man by the hair. He turned the
face up to the starlight and saw that it was Jim Dent, and that the
gunsmith appeared to be unconscious. Taking a firmer grip of Jim's
hair, Jack struck out down stream and swam as fast as he could towards
the approaching light, which was now much bigger and brighter. He had
turned on his side to swim, and looked back now and again as he rose
to his stroke. To his horror he saw the long, dark line which marked
the skiff begin to move swiftly after him. It was difficult to swim in
silence and support Jim. His splashes had marked them out to the
murderers, and they were hastening to beat him and his helpless
companion under before help could arrive.
Jack marked the approaching light and lashed out more fiercely than
ever. Unencumbered by Jim Dent, he would have had ten times as good a
chance of escaping from the human tigers who pursued him, but of
abandoning Jim, the gallant lad had never thought for a moment. Like a
snake darting over the water, the skiff was upon them, and a figure in
the bow raised an oar to strike at Jack's head. Lifting himself high
out of the water with a tremendous stroke, Jack yelled, "Help! help!"
at the top of his voice. The oar fell, but the man had been flurried
by that sudden wild cry at his feet, and it missed its mark. Again he
raised it and struck. Jack had turned on his back, and as the oar
fell, he raised his hand, met the stroke, turned it aside, gripped the
blade, and hung on desperately. The figure gave a muttered cry and
strove to draw the oar back.
But now a warning murmur arose among his companions. The light was
coming on at great speed. Jack's cry had been heard, and the vessel
was rushing swiftly up to the place. The men in the skiff knew well
now what vessel it was, and their only thought was of instant flight.
The oar was abandoned, the skiff was turned round, and away it darted
into the gloom which overhung the mid-stream. A moment later, a police
launch, with its brightly-burning lamp, and two Sikh policemen aboard,
shot up to the spot where Jack clung to the oar and to his comrade.
In an instant the two were drawn into the vessel and Jack was telling
his story.
"There are two others of us in the river," he said, and he raised his
voice and shouted, "Buck! Buck!"
"Hello!" came a cry from some distance, and Jack's heart thrilled with
relief and delight.
The launch was headed in the direction whence the reply came, and soon
Buck's head appeared in the ring of light cast upon the water by the
bright lamp. He was drawn into the launch, and then the little
steamer, circling to and fro, scoured the river to find the Shan
boatman. While this was being done, with one policeman keeping a watch
for the missing man, the second policeman, Risley, and Jack were hard
at work on Jim Dent, trying to bring him back to consciousness.
"Say, this is great," suddenly snapped Buck. "I can feel old Jim's
heart beginning to thump. He'll do, he'll do."
"Thank heaven," breathed Jack, who had been terrified at Dent's white
face and clenched teeth, and thought hope was gone. "He'll come round
then, you think, Buck?"
"He'll come all right," said Buck. "Keep on rubbing him."
"We'll take you ashore," said the first policeman; "there's no sign of
your boatman. That was the man they were beating under, there is no
doubt. Do you know anything of the men who attacked you?"
"Nothing at all," replied Buck. "We have no idea who they were."
"River-thieves," said the second policeman, "as hard to catch as a
monkey in the jungle. They work by night always. If we hadn't come up,
your bodies, stripped to the skin, would have been thrown up on the
river bank to-morrow."
The police launch put them ashore near the rest-house where they were
staying, and Jim was now sufficiently recovered to be able to walk.
"It was a close call that time," he said. "Who held me up? The only
thing I remember is hitting my head a terrific crack against the prow
of the sampan as I went over. I knew nothing after that till I sat up
on the deck of the police-boat."
"Jack had got hold of you, good and all right, so the policeman told
me," said Buck. "Where he found you I don't know."
Jack was compelled perforce to tell his story, and Jim Dent expressed
his deep gratitude.
"By George, sir," he concluded, "I should have been a supper for an
alligator to-night if you hadn't stuck to me. Those murdering rogues
would have beaten me under easy enough, even if I hadn't been drowned
before giving them the trouble. I've got to thank you for my life."
"Oh, you'd have done the same for me, Jim," said Jack. "We're bound to
stick together."
At this moment Buck, who had gone forward, gave a loud cry of pleasure
and surprise. Jack and Dent hurried after him, and entered the door of
the rest-house. Here they saw Buck slapping the Shan boatman on the
shoulder. The man, like themselves, was dripping from the river, and
was telling his story to the Burman landlord. The latter acted as
interpreter, and they learned how the Shan, as much at home in the
river as out of it, had dodged the blows of the oar, and dived and
swum so far that their assailants had believed him sunk for ever, and
had followed up Jack and Jim. Meanwhile the Shan had swum quietly
ashore and walked up to the rest-house. His only trouble now was the
loss of his sampan, and his grief was soon turned to joy when he
received a sufficient sum of rupees to buy another and leave him
something in pocket.
"River-thieves," was the comment of the landlord on the story. "They
are very daring sometimes. Without doubt they heard you speak English,
and hoped to make a fine booty by drowning and stripping you." He
bustled off to get them a supper, and Buck looked at his companions.
"I dunno as I put much faith in this river-thief theory," he remarked.
"It's handy and natural, an' all these people jump at it, of course,
but I don't think there was much river-thieves about that lot."
"Nor me, Buck," rejoined Dent. "I'd be willing to lay a trifle that
some friends of U Saw had a finger in that little pie. It would have
been a nice clean sweep of us, and as safe a way of being rid of us as
could easily be found."
"After this I'm going to wear a gun," remarked Buck. "I fancy it
would have been rather useful if you could have pumped a few bits of
lead into that boat as it came swinging into us."
"Very useful, Buck," returned Jack, "but after all, this afternoon we
were in a train where it would have seemed as out of place to wear a
pistol as if you were going from the Mansion House to Westminster."
"Yes, things change mighty quick in this country," said Buck, "and
you've got to be ready to change with 'em."
"By the way," said Jack, "those fellows who attacked us seemed to have
nothing to shoot with."
"Best for them not," remarked Dent. "They've got their own way of
going to work, and a good one too. Their chief aim is to work in
silence. Suppose they'd cracked off gun or pistol at us. A sound like
that travels a long way over water, and draws a lot of attention. You
see what a sharp watch the river-police keep. Instead of one launch on
a regular patrol, there would have been three or four shooting up to
see what the row was about."
They stripped off their wet clothes, gave them to the Burman landlord
to dry, and put on fresh garments from their baggage. Jim Dent
unstrapped the ammunition case, and each took a revolver, carefully
loaded it, and put it in a pocket hidden by the tunic.
"We don't want to walk about with holsters strapped round us just
yet," said Buck, "and at the same time we might want to do some
shooting at any minute. My opinion is that the gang is watching us all
the time."
"So I think," said Jack. "How can we drop them, I wonder, so that we
can make a start on our expedition without being ambushed as soon as
we strike into the jungle?"
"It's going to be mighty dangerous to go into the Mogok country and
follow up the Professor's trail straight from the beginning," said
Buck. "We shall be spotted at once, and, as Jack says, an ambush will
be laid for us as soon as we hit the jungle and leave the last
policeman behind."
Jim Dent scratched his jaw thoughtfully.
"They're a trifle too handy at layin' a trap for you," he remarked.
"Let's have a squint at the map. We ain't bound to follow just the
only track which would give U Saw and his men the chance to scupper us
without givin' us a chance to lay one or two of 'em out."
The map was spread on a table, and all three bent over it.
"See, now," said Jim, "everybody knows the road to Mogok. You go up
the river by steamer to Thabeit-Kyim, and then you've got sixty miles
of road across the hills to the ruby-mines."
"And the road about as quiet as Piccadilly on a fine afternoon in
June," remarked Buck. "There are mule-trains and bullock-carts, an'
men walkin' an' men ridin'. You can no more keep yourself hidden on
that road than you can if you walked down the main street of
Mandalay."
"Can't we take the place in flank?" asked Jack. "Drop somehow on my
father's line without giving them such warning as they would receive
by seeing us about Mogok?"
"Why, the bother is," said Jim, "we don't know the Professor's trail.
We must pick up one of his guides. Buck, here, can lay his hand on one
of the people who accompanied your father easily enough, but he's got
to be in Mogok to do it."
"Wait a bit," said Buck. "Not so fast, Jim, my son. I see a glimpse o'
daylight. What's this place farther up the river, Kyan Nyat. That's
where the man came from who was the Professor's head man on his last
trip, the chap who engaged the coolies and looked after everything. He
was about as useful as they make 'em, the Professor said when he got
back. His name's Me Dain, and he told me he was going back to his
native village. He was tired of Mogok."
"We'll look him up then, Buck," said Jack. "If we can get hold of him,
he could pilot us across country."
"Yes, yes," said Jim. "Straight from the river. Very good, now we know
what we're after. The sailing orders are Kyan Nyat."