Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-02-07

slant request as a detective, and, for
4 tracking down either a wild beast
or a criminal, he had no equal in
Bengal
Gliding into the room as noise
| lessly as shadow, he made low
saaam, and said in his own langu
"May the humblest of his servants
speak 10 the Sahibl' (master).
/ There was nothing particularly
humble. it must be admitted, in the
speakers bearing; on the contrary, he
! held himself erect, and looked the
| Commissioner full in the face with
the air of a man who knew his OVID
value, and had something to tell
which he felt to be worth hearing;
but Mr. Sparks, with whom Ismail
was an old acquaintance, appeared to
understand these signs perfectly and
said
What has Ismail to tell l am list
ening.
II have been at the village of Ram
GAM" answered the Mahratta, lay
ing slight stress upon the last word
"Ramganj?" echoed Mr.. Sparks.
"Ah, to be sure; the place where that
crocodile's been eating up 50 many
people"
"Are you quite sure, Sahib2' asked
the Hindu, keenly watching the effect
Of his words, "that it was a crocodile
that did it2"
The Engllshman started, and look
ed fxedly at Ismail's immovable face.
That's how heard the story told, "
reioined he. If it wasn't a crocodile,
what was it2'
Did the Commissioner Sahib, " in
quired Ismail, ever hear of a croco
die 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 a Slight
start, and the sparkle of his eye show
ed that he was beginning to guess the
riddle, but he took care to make no in
terruption, seeing that lsmail wished
to have the pleasure of telling the
whole story himself.
II went to the village continued
Tsmail, and talked with the people.
Then | dived into the river (my lord
knows that can find my way through
water as well as through thicbets), and
at the bottom | came upon a noosed
rope
The Commissioner nodded with the
air of a man who understands the
whole affair perfectly, but still he said
nothing.
The Sahib understands WOW 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 and drowned her, and then
plundered the corpse at his leisure"
II see, SAID Mr., Sparks Well, |
lsmail. you know there's a govern
ment reward of a thousand rupees
(f50W for every murderer brought to
justice; see what you can make of the
case.
The Mahra ttas black eyes flashed
fire, for five hundred dollars is morc
to Hindu than five thousand to a
white man, and such IA chance did not
come to him every day. lie went out
without a word, but Mr. Sparks felt
satisfied that there would be news Of
the criminal before long.
Ismal plunged at once into the sur
rounding jungle, and traversed it at a
pace which few men could have kept
up over such ground and in such a
climate till he came in sight of Ram
gaui, but instead of entering the vii
lage he struck down a by-path to the
liver, swan across, went slowly up
the opposite side till he came to two
BAN boo-elumps close together, and
cropping in the water beside them,
pulled 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 doubles 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 in the
thicket
An hour had passed since bis 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, bat finding them rough and
frayed as if by constant rubbing, and
feeling of the sharp stone lying
just underneath, he appeared satisfied
that it must have been an accident, /
and kneIt down to knot the cord to-
gether again.
So engrossed was the villain 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
nojseless football of one who had been
tracking tiger and antelope through
their native juugles ever since he was
ten wears old.
Tho rogue was still quite unsuspi-
cious OF harm when a TALL, shadowy
figure rose behind him as suddenly as