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Updated: May 5, 2025
Japanese matches from Osaka were for sale here, and foreign nick-nacks, needles and braid and cotton, and Manchester dress stuffs mixed with the multitudinous articles of native produce. This is a Shan town, but large numbers of native women Kachins were here also with their ugly black faces, and coarse black fringes hiding their low foreheads.
Save for his fetters, Jack rode as usual, but the two Kachins, one on either side, held his pony by stout thongs of raw hide, fastened in the bridle. At his heels trotted the two leaders, and Jack knew that both were well armed. On the journey that followed it is not necessary to dwell, for it was quite uneventful.
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."
The mystery of the woman's disappearance must wait; the first thing to be done was to keep the Kachins from their throats. He and his father had already settled upon the point which they would occupy for defence. Halfway down the narrow winding flight there was a small landing, about six feet long, with a sharp turn above and below.
They moved on, walking their ponies quietly, and the line of men on foot at once marched after them. Neither Jack nor Mr. Haydon was bound. They were entirely free except for the Kachins who marched on either side and kept a wary eye on their movements. "After all," thought Jack sadly to himself. "What need is there to bind us? Suppose I broke loose now and ran?
Jack knew these little men in blue kilts to be brave to desperation, utterly careless of life, either their own or another's, and he braced himself once more for the struggle. But this time the Kachins came on in different order, and in a different fashion.
Jack looked back as they ran up to the ponies, but the top of the slope was now out of sight, and he could not discover whether the Kachins had swarmed up to it or not. The fugitives were now following a well-worn path, clearly that used by the people of the country-side to gain the bridge over the stream in front.
We must now return to Jack, whom we left crouching at the end of the tunnel which led to the outer cave, and awaiting the onslaught of three powerful Kachins. As the natives drew step by step along the tunnel towards Jack, he balanced the great broadsword he held by both hands, and poised it ready to strike at the foremost. Though he was greatly out-numbered, yet he held one advantage.
They knew that the strength of the great fierce beast was going with it, and that very soon the Kachins would be at the foot of the stairs. They talked the situation over, and looked at it from every point of view, but could see only one thing to do. That was to wait for the enemy on the narrow winding steps, where but one could pass at a time, and hold them at bay. Jack looked round.
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.
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