THE VILLAGE FESTIVAL.
For three days the strong arms of Me Dain and the two Shan boatmen
drove the river boat up the stream, and every day's journey brought
them nearer to the mountains where the rubies were found, and among
whose recesses they believed that Jack's father was a close prisoner
in the hands of men who coveted rubies above all things.
Jack said very little to his companions about the object of their
journey, but his own thoughts were full of it at every waking moment.
Since he had discovered that U Saw, the Ruby King, had a steam yacht,
and that it had returned and gone up river shortly before their own
arrival, he had felt no doubt whatever in his own mind as to his
father's fate. He knew that the great ruby expert was on that yacht a
close captive, and that he had been carried by secret ways, through
the jungle and over the hills, to the place where U Saw was
all-powerful, and would do his utmost to wrest from Thomas Haydon the
knowledge which the latter certainly possessed of a great ruby-mine.
Very good. They, too, would push into the Ruby King's country, and do
their utmost to foil his plans and snatch his prisoner from his
clutch. Hour after hour Jack thought over the situation, while his eye
rested almost carelessly on the lovely scenes of hill-side and jungle,
past which their boat was driven.
At the end of the first day they left the main current of the river,
and poled eastwards by a network of creeks leading to the village from
which their boatmen came. For the most part the water-way was very
solitary. Here and there they passed a village, but, as a rule, no
life, save that of wild animals, was to be seen. Monkeys chattered in
the trees over their heads, panthers and deer came down to the stream
to drink, tigers roared in sullen fashion in the jungle, and once, a
troop of wild elephants crossed a ford before them in stately line.
With the evening of the third day the boatmen reached their native
village, and the travellers stepped ashore. A new hut, built of reeds
and cane, was set apart at once for their use, and, after supper, they
talked over their future movements before turning in.
"How do we stand now as regards striking the course my father followed
from Mogok?" asked Jack.
Jim Dent, who knew the country well, cross-examined Me Dain for a few
moments.
"We ought to hit it to-morrow afternoon," he said. "We've come a long
way on the right road by dropping on these boatmen. We're just handy
to the foot-hills, and the Professor skirted 'em, according to what Me
Dain says."
"Very well," said Jack. "Then we'll roll into our blankets, and be off
by daybreak."
Jack was so eager to start on the real trail, and so excited by its
nearness, that he slept but little. He was up an hour before the dawn,
and had got the fire burning when his companions awoke. Buck sat up,
and rubbed his eyes, and sniffed the smoke.
"Keen on a start, Jack?" he murmured.
"I am, Buck," replied the tall lad. "Haven't you told me a score of
times how the news of travellers in a country runs with marvellous
swiftness through the jungle, from village to village? Well, I want to
be ahead of the news. It might make Saya Chone and U Saw suspicious.
They knew very well we were in Mandalay. I don't want them to learn
too soon that we're at their very doors."
Jim Dent nodded. He, too, had wakened, and had been listening to Jack.
"Me Dain," said Jack, "go to the headman, and tell him we want a
couple of good ponies to carry the packs once more. Bring them here
for us to see, and then we'll pay the owners."
Within half an hour they had the pick of a score of capital little
beasts. They looked them over carefully, chose the couple which seemed
best suited to their needs, paid for them, and set to work to pack the
traps on them. Within an hour after sunrise they were on the march.
For several miles they followed a well-worn road running due north
from the village. This was to conceal their true line of march from
the knowledge of the curious villagers. But when they were well away
from the place, and safe from all prying eyes, they swung to the east
and marched straight through open country for the foot-hills, plainly
in view a score of miles away.
The sun was low and they had made a good day's journey, when Me Dain
halted on a little ridge, overlooking a sloping green valley with a
brook tinkling down its centre. Jack was beside him.
"There, sahib, there," said the Burman. "We have reached now the path
which the sahib, your father, followed. We made our camp, one night,
under those trees."
He pointed to a group of noble teak trees growing beside the little
brook, and Jack strode forward, and was soon standing on the spot
where his father had camped a month or two before. He had scarcely
reached the place when he received proof positive that Me Dain was
right. Something glittered in the rays of the sinking sun. It was an
empty tin tossed carelessly into a clump of wild-fig bushes. Jack
picked it up with a cry of recognition.
"Look here," he said; "the Burman's hit the trail all right. Here's
one of the governor's empty tobacco tins. He's never smoked anything
else in my knowledge of him."
Jack held in his hand an empty tin which bore the name of a brand of
Carolina tobacco. Though little known out of America, the tobacco was
an immense favourite with Mr.. Haydon, who carried an ample supply of
it with him wherever he went.
"Sure thing," chuckled Buck. "That's one o' the Professor's tins.
Well, we'll follow him up."
They camped that night under the teak trees, and with the first light
of the next morning, began to follow up the track which Mr.. Haydon
had taken some time before, the track which led into the wild
hill-country, where U Saw, the Ruby King, was all-powerful.
They now moved with the utmost caution. When they saw a caravan of
cattle, laden with salt, marching along a hill road they were about to
cross, they hid from it in the jungle. When they saw afar off the
spire of a pagoda peeping over the trees, and knew they were near a
village, they sent Me Dain ahead to make inquiries, and find whether
the villagers were familiar with the name of U Saw. And so for three
days they worked cautiously along the track running up into the hills
where Thomas Haydon had found the immense ruby of priceless value.
On the fourth morning they were just breaking camp, when, to their
surprise, a troop of gaily dressed villagers passed them, and called
out a cheerful greeting to Me Dain. The Burman went forward to talk to
them, while Jack, Jim, and Buck went on with their packing, and tried
to look unconcerned.
They were in reality vexed that they had been seen. But the bunch of
walking figures had descended the ravine in which they were camped so
suddenly and unexpectedly, that there was no time to get out of the
way.
"Where under the sun have these people turned up from, in so lonely a
part of the hills?" said Jack to Buck. "Why, we haven't seen a village
since yesterday morning."
"I dunno," replied Buck. "This beats the band. They seem to have
dropped from the sky."
When Me Dain came back to them, the explanation was simple enough.
Four hours' march ahead was a large village, where every three years a
great religious festival was held. To this festival the whole
country-side gathered, and the band of villagers, now pushing ahead
and almost out of sight at the foot of the ravine, had already come
three days' journey to attend the feast.
The Burman reported that the villagers had been filled with curiosity
at the sight of three white travellers in this out-of-the-way region,
and had overwhelmed him with questions about them.
"What did you tell them, Me Dain?" asked Jack.
"Said you were crossing the hills to strike up to the great road from
Bhamo," replied the Burman. "Sahibs, we must go to that village now,
and pass through it openly."
"But won't that make our presence known throughout the whole
district?" cried Jack.
"Not half so much as if we don't show up," said Jim Dent "D'ye see,
Jack, it's uncommon, but not impossible, for travellers to strike
across the hills this way. Now, if we pass through this village in an
open sort of fashion, it won't make a tenth of the talk as if we were
to slip off and never be seen again. Then there'd be such a chatter in
the country-side as we don't want to start."
"I see what you mean, Jim," returned Jack. "We must hope that we can
get through the place quietly."
But Jack's hopes proved utterly vain. Half a mile outside the village
they were met by a dozen of the leading inhabitants, each wearing a
fine new silk _putsoe_, and with a _gaung baung_ of gorgeous colour on
his head. The strangers were politely bidden to take up their
residence in the house of the headman, and to be present at the great
feast which was that night to open the week of religious festival. It
was impossible to refuse these attentions, and the little group of
travellers, whose keenest wish was to pass unnoticed, entered the
place under the stare of many hundreds of eyes.
A large room was set at their disposal in the house of the headman,
and here they talked together.
"It's vexing, but it can't be helped," said Jack. "We must slip off
again in the morning. After all, this fandango, you say, will last a
week. At that rate, we shall get a big start of the people assembled
here, and shall outrun the country gossip far enough."