The Road to Mandalay A Tale of Burma by B. M. Croker Cassell and Company, Ltd London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne First published October 1917. Reprinted December 1917, March and May 1918 Popular Edition 1919. TO LT.-COLONEL A. E. CONGDON LATE ROYAL MUNSTER FUSILIERS FROM HIS OLD FRIEND THE AUTHOR CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. BLINDS DOWN CHAPTER 2. WHAT HANNAH SAID CHAPTER 3. THE CLOSED HOUSE CHAPTER 4. KICKS AND HALFPENCE CHAPTER 5. CLOUDS CHAPTER 6. AN EMPTY OFFER CHAPTER 7. “THE MONSTER” CHAPTER 8. BOUND FOR BURMA CHAPTER 9. THE “BLANKSHIRE” CHAPTER 10. THE LAND OF PROMISE CHAPTER 11. A BURMESE HOSTESS CHAPTER 12. EAST AND WEST CHAPTER 13. “KEEP AN EYE UPON HER” CHAPTER 14. THE MANTLE OF FERNANDA CHAPTER 15. THE CHUMMERY CHAPTER 16. MR. AND MRS. ABELSALTER CHAPTER 17. AT THE PLAY CHAPTER 18. THE CHINESE SHOP CHAPTER 19. CHAFF CHAPTER 20. THE PONGYE CHAPTER 21. THE COCAINE DEN CHAPTER 22. THE APPROACHING DREAD CHAPTER 23. MYSTERY AND SUSPICION CHAPTER 24. SENTENCE OF DEATH CHAPTER 25. THE LATE RICHARD ROSCOE CHAPTER 26. FITZGERALD IMPARTS INFORMATION CHAPTER 27. A ROPE TRICK CHAPTER 28. MA CHIT CHAPTER 29. MUNG BAW CHAPTER 30. ENLIGHTENMENT CHAPTER 31. SEEING IS BELIEVING CHAPTER 32. ON DUTY CHAPTER 33. SOPHY CHAPTER 34. ALL IS OVER CHAPTER 35. MUNG BAW LIES LOW CHAPTER 36. THE BOMBSHELL CHAPTER 37. THE TUG OF WAR CHAPTER 38. SERGEANT-MAJOR RYAN THE ROAD TO MANDALAY CHAPTER I BLINDS DOWN “What do you think, Mitty? All the blinds are down at ‘Littlecote,’” announced Miss Jane Tebbs, bursting open the drawing-room door and disturbing her sister in a surreptitious game of patience. In well-ordered households the mistress is understood to have various domestic tasks claiming her attention in the morning. Cards should never appear until after sunset. “Blinds down?” echoed Miss Tebbs, hastily moving a newspaper in the hope of concealing her ill-doing. “Why are you in such a taking, Jane? I suppose the family are away.” “Rubbish!” exclaimed her relative, sinking into a chair and dragging off her gloves. “Did you ever know them all away together? Of course, Mrs. Shafto goes gadding, and Douglas is at Sandhurst, but ‘he’ seldom stirs. It is my opinion that something has happened. The Shaftos have lived at ‘Littlecote’ for ten years, and I have never seen the blinds down before to-day.” “Oh, you are so fussy and ready to imagine things!” grumbled Mitty, who meanwhile had collected and pocketed the cards with surpassing dexterity. “I don’t forget the time when the curate had a smart lady in his lodgings, and you nearly went out of your mind: rampaging up and down the village, and telling everyone that the bishop must be informed; and after all your outcry she turned out to be the young man’s mother!”