"So I think, master, that you can count upon them. The Burmese have always been fond of fighting, because fighting means booty. The troops don't want to fight any more, because they get no booty, and a number of them are killed. But, now that the villagers have been forced to go to the war against their will; and have been plundered, and many killed, by Burmese soldiers, they are quite ready to take sides with you. Three of them have had wives or children killed, today; and that makes them full of fight."
"Well, you had better tell them to cook, at once, food for two or three days. At four o'clock they are to start, through the forest, to the road you spoke of. We will set out at the same time, on horseback; but we shall have to make a detour, so they will be on the road before we are. Tell them when they get there to stop, until we come up."
"Yes, master. It is a good thing that I rode your second horse, yesterday, instead of Mr. Brooke's animal."
"Yes, he is worth a good deal more than the other, Meinik, and I should certainly have been sorry to lose him."
"One of the men who is going with us says that he knows of the ruins of an old temple, eight or nine miles this side of Toungoo; and that this would be a good place for us to leave our horses. It is very, very old; one of those built by the people who lived in the land before we came to it, and the Burmans do not like to go near it; so that there would be no fear of our being disturbed, there. Even these men do not much like going there; but I told them that no evil spirits would come, where white men were."
"It is rather far off, Meinik; but as you say the country is cultivated, for some distance round the town, we shall certainly have to leave our horses some six or seven miles away; and two or three miles will not make much difference. We can put on our disguises there.
"You had better take a couple of boys to look after the horses, while we are away."
"They would not sleep there, at night," Meinik said, doubtfully. "I don't think the men would, either, if you were not there."
"That would not matter, Meinik, if as you say, there is no fear of anyone else going there."
"Certainly, no one else will go there at night, master."