AN UNWELCOME MEETING.
When he awoke the next morning the pot of rice was once more bubbling
over the fire, and one of the natives was squatted near by, feeding
the fire with dry chips; the second man was not to be seen. The
Panthay feeding the fire looked up with a cheerful grin when he heard
Jack move, and pointed to the cooking-pot, as if to assure him that
breakfast would soon be ready.
Jack stretched himself and yawned. After his long sleep he felt like a
giant refreshed. He wondered what time it was, and glanced at his
watch. But his watch had stopped, he had forgotten to wind it up. The
sun, however, showed him, by its height, that the morning was well
advanced.
"I've slept off my weariness with a vengeance," murmured Jack to
himself. "It must be nine or ten o'clock by the look of the sun."
At this moment the native by the fire uttered a cry which was answered
from without. The second Panthay ran up at that moment, panting as if
he had travelled fast and far. He bore upon his shoulders a basket
from which he took a couple of chickens, half a dozen plantains, and
a fresh supply of rice.
"Then there's a village somewhere in the neighbourhood," thought Jack.
"But it may be ten or a dozen miles off. This fellow looks as if he
had had a long run for the stuff. I suppose it is in my honour."
The two men prepared one of the chickens in a trice. They stripped off
the feathers, cut up the fowl, and broiled the pieces over the fire on
little skewers of hard wood. In a short time an excellent breakfast of
broiled chicken, rice, and plantain was set before him, and Jack
devoured it with the utmost relish. Then he set himself to work by
means of signs to make them understand that he wished them to lead him
to the village from which the Panthay had fetched the supplies.
In the end they understood him, and put their axes in a corner of the
cave. By motions of their heads and hands they gave him to understand
that they would lay by work for the day, and become his guides. Jack
patted them on the back, and gave them another couple of rupees apiece
to strengthen them in this excellent resolution.
When he had finished his meal, Jack sat down again on the heap of
grass to await the pleasure of his companions. The second man had not
eaten, but he soon despatched his portion of rice, and then they were
ready for the road.
They left the cave, and the two Panthays led the way down the ravine,
retracing the line the elephants had taken in coming into this part of
the country.
"That's good," thought Jack. "We're striking on the road back at
once. I wish I knew the name of the village where the festival was
held, but I'm pretty certain to find someone in the place these chaps
come from who can tell me. People were marching to the feast from a
much greater distance away than this can be."
Their progress was slow, for the day was one of scorching heat. The
naked Panthays slipped through the jungle as easily as the monkeys
skipped through the trees, but Jack could not move at any speed. As
the sun approached high noon a halt was called in shade of a thicket
on a little ridge, where the air was fresher than in the dark,
steaming hollows. Here they stayed for three hours, and Jack, after he
had eaten the meal the Panthays prepared, dozed in the shade.
When he saw his guides gathering their baggage and packing it into the
big basket which one carried slung over his shoulders, Jack sprang to
his feet, stretched himself, and strolled forward half a dozen yards.
They had halted beside a narrow path which crossed the ridge, and he
wished to see toward what kind of country below the path led.
The bushes thinned, and he saw that a vast plain was opening out
before him. But he did not leave the cover of the edge of the thicket.
Something moving below caught his eye, and he parted the tall shoots
of a bush before him, and peeped through the huge trails of pink and
crimson convolvuli which festooned the branches of the low trees.
Straight before him the path ran down a steep slope and then wound
over a broad plain, showing itself here and there in the gaps between
patches of bamboo and acacias and palms. It was among a clump of
palms at some distance that Jack had caught sight of a moving object,
and he now looked eagerly to see it come into view again.
It was not that he feared any particular evil at the moment, but in
his present desperate circumstances, utterly stranded in these wilds
among savage hill-tribes, he knew not at any moment when a savage
enemy might appear. He knew well that he had been lucky in falling in
with these quiet wood-cutters, and he hoped that such luck would stay
with him for a little till he could rejoin his friends.
The thought had scarcely crossed his mind when he saw that it was
vain, and that at this very moment he stood in the utmost danger from
his worst and deadliest foes. The moving objects he had seen came in
sight once more, a couple of naked fellows in turban and waist-cloth.
Jack knew them for Panthays, like the men who were now behind him
making ready for the march. Then, at the next second, he saw two
brilliant spots of colour, and knew that the Panthays were not alone.
A little cavalcade of six riders, mounted on ponies, followed the two
naked men on foot. The whole of the tiny procession passed over a
little clearing, and was lost again in a clump of bamboos.
Jack's heart beat fast and he drew a deep breath. Who were these men
the Panthays were leading towards him? He remembered two of his
enemies yesterday, and the two leading riders brought them to mind
again. Saya Chone had worn a head-dress of brilliant flaming scarlet,
the Strangler a turban of bright yellow.
Again the little procession filed into sight, out of the bamboos.
Scarlet and yellow the head-dresses of the first couple of mounted men
flashed vivid into the burning radiance of the sunlight. The riders
were too far off for Jack to make out their faces, but he did not need
that; he felt in his bones that his terrible enemies were upon him
once more, and he turned to fly. It was plain enough, too, how they
had hit upon his whereabouts. They had followed up the tracks of the
flying elephants, and inquired in every village round-about. Then the
Panthay, returning to his home for food, had spoken of the sahib they
had found among the hills, and had put the pursuers on Jack's trail.
As Jack turned he heard a grunt of surprise. One of the Panthays had
stepped forward and caught sight of the approaching cavalcade. Jack
sprang upon him, seized his naked shoulder, and drew him back into
shelter of the thicket. The two men looked at him in wonder. Our hero
had nothing but signs with which to communicate to these men the
danger in which he stood. He chose three effective movements. He
pointed to the oncoming strangers, he pointed to himself; finally he
seized the _dah_ which one carried swinging in a thong over his
shoulders, and made a motion as of passing the keen weapon across his
throat.
By their looks of intelligence he saw that the Panthays had fully
grasped his meaning. They spoke swiftly to each other for a few
moments.
[Illustration: A SUDDEN ALARM.]
Jack awaited the upshot in keenest anxiety. If these men did not stand
by him he was indeed lost. Then, to his immense relief, the elder man,
he who had dropped into the howdah and had taken the lead from the
first, stepped forward, raised Jack's hand, and kissed it. Then he
pointed to the depth of the jungle. Jack nodded and patted him on the
shoulder. The younger Panthay swung the basket on his back, and away
glided the three, leaving the path, and striking off directly among
the trees.
In two minutes they were out of sight of their camping-place, and as
the advancing party was not yet at the foot of the slope, Jack never
doubted but that the half-caste would be thrown off the scent, and
would pass on towards the ravine where the wood-cutters were known to
be at work. But he had made one mistake, the error of supposing that
the two Panthays in front of the horsemen were the first of the party.
They were not. A single tracker had led the way some distance ahead,
and him Jack had missed among the thickets and groves which hid the
path here and there. So that, as the three fugitives disappeared among
the thicker growth of jungle, a dark figure gained the crown of the
slope, and with swift and noiseless tread approached their
camping-place.
The quick eye of the Panthay at once caught sight of the retreating
men, above all of the sahib, so easily to be known by his dress, and
the tracker drew back instantly into the bushes.