The Rajah's Fortress — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

66 THE RAJAH’S FORTRESS. ment be cut to pieces, though the chances were ten to one against reaching him in time. Half a dozen men carefully took the idol down the steps, and, with a brief farewell, Melton and Dalo hastened down after it to the bottom. Very noiselessly they each straddled an end, and with gilded shingles from the pagoda roof, paddled down the river, cutting across so as to avoid the vortex of the whirlpool. Once below the rock, they struck into the center of the stream where they were caught in the turbu- lent waters of the creek, and ina very few minutes the light that twinkled in the pagoda was lost to view, though they could still hear a straggling fire from the town. The Chindwin was a quarter of a mile wide, and dotted quite frequently with little islands. Dalo sat on the neck of the idol, and Forbes some dis- tance behind him. It was no longer necessary to paddle, for the current was swift and strong. They had gone at least two miles, and still they saw no trace of the steamer. The moon was grad- ually coming up, and the banks of the river were in plain view, so that they could not miss the boat even ifshe was moored to the shore. That was improbable, however, for at night the steamers were always anchored well out in the stream to guard against an attack. Dalo’s sharp eyes had been tried on many a similar occasion, while this was quite new work to Forbes, so when COLUM 1OOO SS co