Connecticut western news., 1883-11-28
VOL. XIII.
water just as the other two had done be.

a perfect mound of papers, halting every now and then to wipe his streaming face (which, despite the numerous paoekoh, or swingingfan, worked by his native servant outside with cord passed through hole in the wall looked very much like half-melted snowbalD, when he was suddenly disturbed by 8 knock at the door.
 ''Come in r. cried he snappishly, ex- pecting the entrance of some Hindu farmer or peasant with complaint as long and unintelligent as an Assyrian inscription. But at the first glimpse of the person who entered his face cleared at once.
 The visitor was tall native, with the handsome features and stately bearing of a Mahratta. His figure, nearly six feet in height, was so gaunt and sinewy that it seemed to be made of pin-wire, and his piercing black eyes looked out from beneath the folds of his white turban with the quick, keen, watchful glance of a practical hunter.
 | well used to tracking other game beside | deer or tigers. Over and above his oc- equations as scout, hunter and govern ment courier, he was in constant re- i quest as detective, and, for tracking down either 0 wild beast or criminal, he had no equal in Bengal.
 Gliding into the room as noiselessly as shadow, he made low salaam, and said in his own language: "May the humblest of his servants speak to the Sahib?" (master). There was nothing particularly hum ble, it must be admitted, in the speak CTS bearing; on the contrary, he held himself erect, and looked the Commis- sioner full in the face with the air of a man who knew his own value, and had something to tell which he felt to be worth hearing; but MT. Sparks, with whom IsmaiI was an old acquaintance, appeared to understand these signs per fectly, and said:
 "What has Ismail to tell? l am is- tening."
 ''I have been at the village of Ram ganj," answered the Mahratta, laying 8 stress upon the last word.
 "Ramganj?" echoed MT. Sparks. ''Ah, to be sure; the place where that crocodile's been eating up so many peo- ple.''
 ''Are you quite sure, Sahib?' asked the Hindu, keenly watching the effect of his words, ''that 1t was crocodile that did 1t ?"
 The Englishman started, and looked fxedly at Ismail's immovable face.
 '"That's how I heard the story told, D rejoined he. ':If it wasn't 8 crocodile what was 1t ?"
 "Did the Commissioner, Sahib," in- quired Ismail, .'ever hear of a crocodile being so nice in his eating as to devour none but women, and only such women as had plenty of silver bangles on?"
 Again MT. Sparks gave slight start, and the sparkle of his eye showed that he was beginning to guess the riddle, but he took care to make no interrup- I the pleasure of telling the whole story himself.
 ''I went to the village" continued
 Ismail "and, talked with the people. Then 1 dived into the river (my lord
 knows that can find my way through
 water as well as through thickets), and at the bottom I came. upon 8 noose0 rope.
 The Commissioner nodded with the
 air of a man who understood the whole
 affair perfectly, but still he said nothing.
 s'The Sahib understands how it was
 done" proceeded the Hindu. "Wher
 any woman worth robbing went into the
 water, the moose tangled her feet, and
 the robber, hidden among the bushes
 on the opposite bank, dragged her dow1 and drowned her, and then plunderec
 the corpse at his leisure" "I see," said MT. Sparks. ''Well Ismail, you know there's Goyernmen reward of thousand rupees ($5OO) fo every murderer brought to justice; Sc, what you can make of the case" The Mahratta's black eyes fashe,
 fire, for five hundred dollars is more t ] 8 Hindu than five thousand to whit 3 man, and such chance did not com T to him every day. He went out withou word, but MT. Sparks felt satisfe 5 that there would be news of the crimins before long.
 Ismail plunged at once into the SUI : rounding jungle, and traversed it at 3 pace which few men could have kept u
 over such ground and in such 8 climate
 till he came in sight of Ramganj, but il 7 stead of entering the village he struc 1 down 8 by-path to the river, swal t across, went slowly up the opposite sid - till he came to two bamboo-cl -clumps clos 3 together, and groping in the water b. side them, pulled up rope. His next move was to hunt out bi stone, upon the sharp edge of which s sawed the cord to and fro till it he Il only by one strand. One slash of h 'r long, sharp knife would have done u ., work much quicker, but Ismail doubtle Il had his reasons for what he did. The | : placing the stone in the shallow wat :, ID with the sharp side uppermost, and u i' rope lying right across it, he vanishe h into the thicket. le An hour had passed since his disa y pearance, and night had already set
 when dark figure came creeping up oi the same spot, and pulled at the ha te severed cord, which instantly parted h