At midnight of the 10th a body of ruffians besieged the house with more vigour even than the police led by the Home Secretary against the house in Sidney Street. The house was of the kind usual in the country, raised on piles with a floor none too closely fitted. The assailants got underneath and fired through the floor, and thrust spears wherever they could find an opening. Early in the fight Lon Pein fell wounded in the head, and never recovered consciousness. Rimmer's rifle was shot in two, and his knee was grazed by a ball. However, he continued to hold out until dawn, when the assailants made off. Next day he managed to find his boat and, with the assistance of some town's-people, to carry Lon Pein to it. The inhabitants expressed their sympathy and regret, but did not explain their failure to help him. Po Saw, it appeared, had left Mogaung the day before, but Rimmer believed that Lon Pein had good cause for holding him responsible for the attack. [Illustration: KACHIN WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE UPPER IRRAWADDY.] Warry persuaded Rimmer to return with him to the protection of the troops, and they joined the column on the 13th, before it left Tapaw, and entered Mogaung with it on the 14th of January. Evidently there was mischief on foot. The leaders of the expedition, on hearing the story, decided that before advancing further it would be wise to make Po Saw show his hand. The difficulty was to get a trustworthy man to carry a message to Mogaung. There was a Mussulman, a native of India, who had come up as an interpreter, with the force, Safdar Ali by name. He might have been a descendant of Sinbad the Sailor, for he had led a life of travel and adventure. He had traded in jade, and was familiar with many parts of the country. He spoke Burmese, Shan, and Kachin, in addition to his native Hindustani, and he had taken wives of the daughters of Heth in most of the bigger places. In consequence, or in spite, of these alliances he was on good terms with the people about, and could obtain intelligence of local affairs. Safdar Ali volunteered to take a letter to Po Saw, and with a native to show him the shortest road, he departed. Meanwhile Captain Triscott and Major Adamson, with some Mounted Infantry, had gone out to examine the track, and found that for four or five miles it crossed a rice plain cut up by numerous muddy ditches which the baggage animals could not get over. Beyond this rice-ground rose some hills, at the foot of which was a morass, which the column would find very difficult to pass. They turned back to the camp, therefore, to collect labour to make the road passable. Safdar Ali, on his way back from Mogaung, overtook them, and reported that Po Saw had disappeared after the Chinaman's murder, and had gone, it was said, to raise the Kachins nearest to Mogaung. This was not cheering news, as Po Saw's influence with the Kachins had been relied upon as the means of establishing peaceable relations with them.