IN THE COURTYARD.
When Jack came to himself after that rough tumble he felt bruised from
crown to heel, and his head was aching dully. For a few moments his
mind was in a puzzle as returning consciousness began slowly to array
before him the last things he remembered. Then he came to himself with
a start, and looked round eagerly to see where he was and what had
happened to his companions.
The first glance told him that he was once more within the deserted
city. He lay in the corner of a ruined house, bound hand and foot; two
Kachins, with muskets across their knees, squatted within six feet of
him, and watched him with a fixed stare. Over his head the sky was
still bright with sunshine, but the low rays told him that the night
was not far off.
"They've got us after all," thought Jack bitterly. "We're in their
hands as tight as ever, and they'll take care, I know, that we don't
slip out of them again."
It was heart-sickening that after their struggle through the pass,
their fight in the pagoda, and their escape by a way which seemed to
open for them in a magical fashion, that they should end by falling
once more into the hands of their cruel foes. As the light faded, Jack
lay and wondered what had become of his father and the native woman,
and what would be the next turn in their strange and wild adventures.
The sun sank, and the night fell with tropic swiftness; soon he was
gazing at a velvety sky, full of bright stars. Still no one came near
them, and his guards sat before him like two statues.
An hour after nightfall a voice called to them from the lane without,
and they obeyed the command at once. They sprang up, and removed from
Jack's ankles the thong which bound them together. Next they dragged
him to his feet and led him forward.
At the gap in the wall, where once a door had been, two other guards
awaited the prisoner, and marched one before and one behind him. Thus
closely watched, Jack was led along the narrow lane. They went fifty
yards or more, and then entered the very courtyard into which the
secret passage opened. Here a huge fire of brushwood and broken beams
was burning, and the place was as light as day, and filled with busy
figures. Jack was led across the courtyard and placed near the
opposite wall.
He looked round, but could catch no glimpse of his father. He saw the
native woman, their companion in misfortune, seated in a corner, a
Kachin beside her as if on guard. The woman's head was bent upon her
breast, and her child was closely clasped in her arms. She did not
look up when Jack was brought in, and her attitude was one of utter
dejection. She had already learned her fate. She was to be taken back
to the village from which she had fled, and there suffer by fire in
the presence of the other villagers. Thus would U Saw teach a lesson
of obedience to all.
The Ruby King himself was seated on a rug spread over the stones of
the courtyard on the other side of the great fire. A meal was just
over. A smaller fire was smouldering near the entrance to the
courtyard, and beside it lay cooking-pots and the long, square baskets
in which food had been carried. Several of the retainers were still
devouring the last fragments of their portion, and the rest were
placidly smoking as they moved to and fro. U Saw was quietly pulling
at a huge cheroot, his eyes fixed dreamily on the leaping flames of
the great fire, and, save for the prisoner and his armed guards, the
whole scene had the air of a peaceful camp, of a caravan of merchants
resting for a night on their march.
An hour passed, and the scene had but changed to this extent that the
moving figures had settled down to a man to give themselves up to the
soothing influence of tobacco. On his rug, U Saw had not stirred a
limb save to flick the ashes from his cheroot, nor had his gaze
wandered aside from the glowing flame. The quiet had become profound.
Then, in deep silence, there was a sound of footsteps approaching the
courtyard. Without turning his head, U Saw raised his hand. The
gesture was scarcely begun when Jack felt himself gripped from behind
by more than one pair of hands, and he knew among them the deadly
clutch of the Strangler.
He was gripped at the same instant by the throat, the waist, and the
heels, nor, so cunning had been their approach, had he dreamed that an
enemy stood behind him. In an instant the thong at his wrists was
severed and his arms drawn out to their fullest extent, a rope tight
about each wrist, while his ankles were lashed together with magical
swiftness and dexterity. He was swung against the wall despite his
struggles, and his body and feet bound to an upright beam. Then the
ropes which were about his wrists were drawn taut and made fast, and
he was a helpless prisoner.
Just as the last twist was given to the bonds, a group of four entered
the courtyard. Saya Chone, the half-caste, came first, and he was
followed by Mr. Haydon, under guard of a couple of Kachins. Now U Saw
slowly rose from his rug and moved forward, his silken kilt catching
the light and glowing with the softest, brightest hues of crimson and
gold.
"How are you, Jack?" called out Mr. Haydon anxiously. "Any bones
broken?"
"Not one, I believe, father," replied Jack; "only bruises."
"If either of you speak another word," said the half-caste smoothly,
"I'll gag you till you choke."
Jack and his father knew that much significance lay under the quiet
words, and they remained silent. U Saw and Saya Chone now spoke
together in a low tone, and then father and son were brought face to
face.
"You are such a slippery couple, and have evaded us so often," said
the half-caste, "that we are going to pay you the compliment of
dealing with you once and for all upon the spot. Now you can be
assured that your last chance of saving your skins has arrived. Here
and now we settle the matter. You can start for Bhamo or Mandalay with
the break of dawn, or you can become food for wild beasts. It remains
with you to decide."
"Don't say a word, father," broke in Jack impetuously. "Don't you see
that we're done for in any case? If you told, do you think such men as
these would keep their word? Dead men tell no tales."
"That's horribly true, Jack," said his father in a low voice.
The faces of the Ruby King and the half-caste had blackened with rage
upon hearing this swift, shrewd speech, which laid bare their motives
and intentions, for Jack had hit the mark fair in the centre. Saya
Chone thrust his face forward till it was within six inches of Jack's.
"Bold words," he hissed viciously, "bold words; but we shall see
before we have done with you."
At this moment there ran into the courtyard a man who panted as if he
had travelled far and fast. He bore beneath his arm a small basket
made of rushes very closely and strongly woven. The Ruby King gave a
grunt of satisfaction, and moved towards him.
Saya Chone now sprang forward and seized the collar of Jack's tunic.
He fixed both hands in it and ripped it open. Then he gripped the
collar of the flannel shirt beneath and made a snatch at that With a
grin of vicious pleasure he rent that open too, and tore a piece of
the stuff clean out. He raised his open hand and struck the bare
breast of the English lad with a resounding slap.
"Now we shall see," he cried, "now we shall see!"
At sight of this Mr. Haydon had attempted to spring forward, but half
a dozen of the iron-muscled little men had leapt at him like cats, and
kept him in his place. They hung on to him and held him a close
prisoner during the scene which followed.
Jack was little affected by the slap. He had his eyes on U Saw. He
felt strongly that the grim, silent Ruby King was the man to be feared
above all.
U Saw and the man with the basket had retired to the other side of the
fire, and a group of Kachins watched the Ruby King respectfully from a
little distance. The watching group now gave a loud murmur of wonder
and admiration, as if they had divined some superlatively clever trick
of their master's, and were applauding it. Then U Saw turned and came
across the courtyard, his right arm oddly and stiffly extended.
Jack watched him come, and wondered what it was that seemed to move
and writhe about his arm as he came. The Ruby King stepped into the
full light of the great, blazing pile, and Jack saw what it was that
moved, and felt his blood run cold within him.
Upon his right hand U Saw wore a thick leathern hunting glove, and his
right arm was heavily swathed with a woollen girdle. About his arm
the body of a snake was twisted, and he held the head firmly in his
hand. A terrible groan of agony burst from Thomas Haydon's lips as he
saw the venomous reptile coiling and uncoiling its short, thick body
round the arm of the Ruby King. It was a small cobra of the most
venomous kind, a creature whose bite took effect at once, and was
followed swiftly by death.
U Saw walked up to Jack and held the head of the horrible creature
within a foot of Jack's face. The latter tried to look steadily at the
frightful death which menaced him, and, for a few seconds, was
fascinated by the dreadful sight. The tiny, glittering, bead-like eyes
of the reptile sparkled with rage, and its hood swelled and swelled in
its fury as it sought something to strike, something upon which it
might expend its store of deadly venom. But the grip of the Ruby King
held head and neck immovable except as he wished, and the cobra had no
power save over its coils. These were in constant and furious motion.
They were now wrapped tightly round U Saw's arm, now flung loose, and
then tightened anew as the angry snake twisted and writhed and sought
to free itself from the clutch which imprisoned its head.
Inch by inch U Saw advanced the frightful flat head until the forked
tongue played immediately before Jack's eyes, and the grip on the head
was now slightly loosened, and the cobra opened wide its horrid jaws
and disclosed its poison fangs, and made convulsive efforts to reach
and strike the face just before it.
Jack closed his eyes and drew a long, quivering breath. This torture
was exquisite beyond any bodily pain. But there was no thought of
yielding in his heart. Among these dark-skinned Asiatics he and his
father stood alone, and it lay with them to maintain the English name
and credit in this moment when men of a weaker race would have given
way and cringed and begged for mercy.
Summoning up his utmost resolution, Jack opened his eyes again,
resolute to deny to his enemies the smallest token of their triumph.
But he found that the horrid, gaping jaws were no longer close to his
face. U Saw had stepped a pace backwards, and was adjusting his grip
of the reptile with the greatest care.
He grasped it anew and more tightly, and stepped forward once more.
Now he advanced the flat head little by little towards Jack's naked
breast. At last it was so close that the cobra's tongue, darting in
and out, was touching the lad's body. Ah! that was horrible. To feel
the cold, forked tongue playing upon the warm flesh above the beating
heart, that heart which would be silenced for ever were but the keen
fangs advanced an inch or so farther.
The natural repugnance of the flesh to so horrible a situation was too
strong for the spirit, and Jack could not restrain a convulsive
shudder, which shook him from head to foot. His father groaned in rage
and agony.