Connecticut western news., 1888-02-08
not look more than four years of age,
 we afterward learned that he was over


 In India every body sleeps during the middle of the day. That is, everybody should. About week after the occurrence related above, the Captain c.im,d into hammock under the ve- randa about il o'clock ono forenoon for nap. I should have climbed Into another, but had some letters to get off that day, and 1 removed coat and vest and sat down to table in corner of eur room. The window before me was up, but Ii Int bamboo shade was down to keep the sun out. The captain had had plenty of time to go to sleep when I happened to look out through the slats of the blind. While I saw nothing, l felt that something was wrong, and I softly rose up and went to tho door opening out on the veranda. This door was, of course, wide open. My feet were in slippers, and made not tho least noise as I reached tho door. The veranda was about 20 feet long, and the Captains hammock was slung at the centra. pcered cautiously out, and I saw the figure of the sly old man right under the ham mock. His back was towards me, but determined to sec what he would do, and then capture him if could. As I looked he slowly rose up on tho Captains left, cooked his ears to listen, and then his delft black fingers began a search of the sleeping mans pockets. I braced myself, took full breath, and was on him at a bound. I seized him firmly by the body, but he sank down, wriggled two or three times, and next minute ho WAS gone, upsotting me by grasping my feet, and heaving away as hc went. It did not seem that he had been at work over ten seconds when I grabbed him, and yet in that time he had extracted tho Captains watch and wallet, and several other articles. All were left behind, but the thief had dis appeared like a shadow.
 Perhaps the best way would have been to give in and employ . chowkadar but we were both determined not to be bulldozed into it. All portable articles not in hourly use were put into strong wooden chest and kept under lock and key and both of Us were on the watch for any new movemnt. A couple of weeks had passed and we were begin ming to feel safe when the fellows at- tempted very bold game. A juggler came to the veranda and began to per form and we both wont out. While the room was left alone, the thieves-there were three of them-came through tn, garden alongside the house and cut hole through the side exactly back of the chest. The caprai, happened to look in just as the box was being moved and with couple of bounds he crossed the room and seized one of the handles. could not realize the situa- tion until the thieves had pulled the chest half way out, and by the time had got around the bungalow they had disappeared. How they could have To- cated the chest so exactly was a mystery to us, as it had been moved several feet only the night before. They cut neither to the right nor the left, but exactly back of it, and tho space was only an inch wider than tn, chest.
 The next move created sensation in Bombay. Opposite our bungalow, which was on side street, was ono be- longing to native--a known thief. The fraternity had somehow got the idea that we had a great pile of money hidden in our bungalow, and that the Captain was making gold nuggets by the wholesale. He was, as I said, ex. perimenting with a now explosive, and this probably started the idea. The ex- plosive was either dynamite or some thing very near It. One day, after the Captain had been fussing around in the front yard for halfsan hour, and while he was reading on the veranda, there was terrible explosion. It seemed as if our house was lifted foot high, and everything inside was thrown into con- fusion as it settled back, It was an explosion which was felt for half a mile around, and when we got out doors ~c found q hole in our front yard into which couple of bullocks could have been dumped. That wasn't all, however A big ditch had been opened straight across the street to the other bunga- low, and the bruised and battered bodies of three natives were thrown out within thirty feet of the big hole. It took us some little time to fgurc out what had occurred. The sly old man and his pals had dug tunnel from the native bungalow to within three feet of ours. It was intended to pass under the house and break ground inside, there being TO floors in our place. The explosion, which took place in an. iron kettle, was almost over tho tunnel, and the force was mainly downward The concussion followed along the ditch and blew the roof if the native bungalow. The thieves wero either creeping for ward or backward in tho anel, and death came to them so quickly that tho y never knew what hurt them.
 Next morning native priest, accom- panied by scribe, called upon u, to se- cure our account of the affair. The Captain had explained matters to the authorities, and tn re had been no in- quest. The priest said that the sly old