After five hours' walking, they came upon the river Myitnge, the tributary that falls into the Irrawaddy at Ava.
It was some four hundred yards across.

The Burman walked along its banks for a short distance, and then pulled from a clump of bushes a small boat, that was just capable of carrying two.

He put it in the water.

They took their seats, and paddled across to the other side; where he carefully concealed it, as before.
"That is our ferry boat," he said.

"It is not often used, for our headquarters are in the great forest we shall presently come to; but it is as well when, occasionally, parties are sent out to hunt us, to have the means of crossing to the other side." Another two hours' walking, through cultivated fields, brought them to the edge of the forest.
"Here you are as safe as if you were in Rangoon," the Burman said.
"In another hour we shall reach my comrades.