The Penn's Grove record., 1884-01-12

deer or tigers. Over and above his oc-
eupations 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 Don as noislessly
as a shadow, he made a low salaam,
and said in his own language
"May the humblest of his servants
speak to the Sahib ?" (master.)
There was nothing particularly hum
Die, it must be admitted, in the speak
er's bearing /; on the contrary, he held
himself erect, and looked the commits
sioner full in the face with the air OF a
man who knew his own value, and had
something to tell which no felt to be
worth hearing !; but Mr.. Sparks, with
whom Ismail was an old acquaintance,
appeared to understand these signs per-
fectly, and said
"What has Ismail to tell ? l am lis
tening."
II have been at the village of Ram
GAM" ans gered the Mahratta, laying a
slight stress on the last word.
Ramganj ?'' echoed Mr.. Sparks. ''Ah
to be sure the place where that croco-
dies been eating up SO many people,"
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
ixedlv at Ismail's immovable face.
THAT'S how | heard the story told,"
rejoined he. eff it wasn't a crocodile,
i, what was it %
"Did the commissioner, Sahib," in
quired Ismail, sever hear of a crocodile
being so nice in his eating as to deyour
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 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" continued
Tsmail, ''and talked with the people.
Then l dived into the river (my lord
knows that 1 can find my way through
water as well as through thickets,) and
at the bottom l came upon q no0Sed
rope"
The commissioner nodded with the
air of a man who understood the whole
affair perfectly, but still he said moth
ing.
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 and drowned her, and then plum
dered the corpse at his leisure"
II see," said Mr.. Sparks. "Well,
Ismail, you know there is agovernment
reward of 1000 rupees $500 for every
murderer brought to justice !; see what
you can make of the case"
The Mahratta's black eyes flashed fire,
for $500 is more to a Hindu than $4,000
to a white man. and such a chance did
not come to him every day. He went
out without a word, but MI. Sparks
felt satisfied there would be news of the
criminal before long.
Ismail plunged at once into the sur
rounding jungle, and traversedi it at a
pace which few men could have kept
up over such ground and in such a eli
mate, till he came in sight of Ramganj,
but instead of entering the village he
struck down bypath 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 a 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 doubt
less had his reasons for wha t he did
Then placing the stone in the shallow
water with the sharp side uppermost
and the rope lying across it, he vanish
ed into the thicket.
An hour had passed since his dIsap-
pearance, and night had already set IN,
when a dark figure came creeping to the
same spot, and pulled at the half served
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 if by constant rubbing, and
feeling the sharp edged stone just I'M
derneath, he appeared satisfied that it
must have been an accident, and knelt
down to knot the cord together again.
So engrossed wa 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 noiseless footfal
of one who had been tracking the tiger
and the antelope through their native
iungles ever since he was ten years old.
ne rogue was still quite unsuspicios
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, felled 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 ana execut-
ed, as he deserved, while Ismail receiv-
ed from the hands of the commissioner
himself, together with a warm common