News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-12-20


deer or tigers. Over and above his oc
cupaticns as scout, hunter and govern
ment courier, he was in constant re
quest as a detective, and, for tracking
down either a wild beast or a criminal
he had no equal in Bengal.
| Gliding INTO the room as noiseIessIya a
a shadow, he made a low salaam, an,
said in his own language:
''May the humblest of his servant
speak to the Sahib - (master).
There was nothing particularly hum
BILE, it must be admitted, in the speak
er's bearing; on the contrary, he heIt
himself erect, and looked the Commits.
sioner full in the face with the air of q
man who knew his own value, and had
something to tell which he felt to be
worth hearing; but Mr.. Sparks, with
whom IsmaiI was an old acquaintance,
appeared to understand these signs per
fectIy, and said !:
"What has Ismail TO tell? l am lis
tening."
81 have been at the village of Ram
ganj, answered the Mahratta, laying a
stress upon the last word.
"Ramganj?" echoed Mr.. Sparks.
"Ah, to be sure; the place where that
crocodiles been eating up so many peo-
pie"
care you quite sure, Sahib? ?" asked
the Hindu, keenly Watching the effect of
his words, ''that it was a crocodile that
did it?"
The Englishman started, and looked
fxedly at Ismail's immovable face.
''That's how heard the story told
reioined he. elf it wasn't a crocodile
what was it?"
Did the Commissioner, Sahib, p" in
| quired IsmaiI, ''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 Mr.. 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 interrupt
ton, seeing that Ismail wished to have
the pleasure of telling the whole story
himself.
81 went to the village" coutinued
Ismail 'and talked with the people.
Then L 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 a nOOSed
rope.
The Commissioner nodded with the
air of man who understood the whole
affair perfectly, but still he said nothing.
1.-The Sahib understands how it was
done, " proceeded the Hindu. "When |
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 down
ma drowned her, and then plundered
he corpse at his leisure.
y Sec" sad Mr.. SPARKS. ''weu,
IsnaiI, You know there's Government
reward of q thousand rupees (S5OO) for
every murderer brought to justice; see
what you can make of the case"
The Mahratta's black eyes flashed .
fire. for five hundred dollars is more to
a Hindu than five thousand to a white !
man, and such chance did not come
to him every day. He went out without |
a word, but Mr. Sparks felt satisfied
that there would be news of the criminal
before long.
IsmaiI plunged at once into the sur
rounding jungle, and traversed it at
pace which few men could have kept up
over such ground and in such a climate,
till he came in sight of Ramganj, but in
stead of entering the village he struck
down a by-path to the river, swan
across, went slowly up the opposite side
till he came to two bamboo-clumps close
together, and cropping in the water be-
side them, pulled up a rope.
His next move was to hunt out big
stone, upon the sharp edge of which he
sawed the cord to and fro till it held
only by one strand. One slash Of his
long, sharp knife would have done the
work much quicker, but Ismail doubtless
had his reasons for what he did. Then
placing the stone in the shallow water
with the sharp side uppermost, and the
rope lying right across it, he vanished
into the thicket.
An hour had passed since his disap-
pearance, and night had already set in
when a dark figure came creeping up to
the same spot, and pulled at the half
severed cord, which instantly parted in
his hand.
The man started, and held up the
broken ends to the light of the rising
moon, but finding them rough and
| frayed as II by constant rubbing, and
feeling the sharp-edged stone lying just
beneath, he appeared satisfied that it
must have been an accident and knelt
down to knot the cord together
50 engrossed was the william with his
treacherous work that he never lifted
his head to look around him, but even
had he been less preoccupied he would
scarcely have heard the noiseIess football
of one who had been tracking the tiger
and the antelope through their native
iungles ever since he was ten years old.
! The rogue was still quite unsHspiclous
of harm, when a tall, shadowy figure
rose behind him as suddenly as if it had
started up through the earth, and a
tremendous blow from a heavy bamboo
club falling upon his bowed head like a
thunderbolt, felIed him senseless to the
earth.
That very night the crestfallen robber
was sent off to the nearest British sta
ton, escorted by a strong guard Of ma
tive policemen, to be tried and executed,
as he deserved, while Ismail received
from the hands of the Commissioner
himself, together with a warm common.
datiOn of his shrewdness, the thousand
rupees which he had 50 well earned
Oltr COntiBc7lt
\ Legal Complication.
The first legal complication arising
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