Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1888-02-10

| In India everybody sleeps during the
middle Of the day. That is, everybody
should. About week after the
occurrence related above, the Captain
dim d into hammock under the We
randa about If o'clock one forenoon for
nap. | should have climbed into
another, but | had some letters to get
oil that day, and 1 removed coat and
ycst and sat down to table in a corner
Of our room. The window before me
vas up, but Ii hit bambo shade wa3
down to keep the sun out. The captain
had had plenty of time to go to sleep
when l happened to look out through
the Stats of the blind. While l saw
nothing, | felt that something was
wrong, and l softly rose up and went
to the door opening out on the veranda.
This door was, of course, wide open.
My feet were in slippers, and | made
not the least noise as l reached the
door. The yeranda was about 90 feet
long, and the Captains hammock was
slung at the celtro peered cautiously
out, and l saw the figure Of
the sly old man right under the ham
mock. His back was towards me, but
determined to see what he would do,
and then capture him if could. As
looked he slowly rose up on the
Captains left, cooked his ears to listen,
and then his deft black fingers began a
search of the sleeping mans pockets.
braced myself, took a full breath, and
was on him at a bound. | seized him
firmly by the body, but he sank down,
wriggled two or three times, and next
minute he was gone, upsotting me by
grasping my feet, and heaving away as
he went. 1t did not seem that he had
been at work over ten seconds when /
grabbed him, and yet in that time he
had extracted the Captains watch and
wallet, and several other articles. All
we're 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 VIC were both determined not to be
bulldozed into it. All portable articles
not in hourly use were put into a 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 jugglel
3ame to the'veranda and began to per-
fsSrm and we both went out. While the
room was left alone, the thieves-there
were three of them-camc through the
garden alongside the house and cut a
hole through the side exactly back of
the chest. The captain happened to
look ia just as the box was being
moved and with a couple Of bounds he
crossed the room and seized one of the
handles. l 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-
Gated 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 the space was
only an inch wider than the chest.
The next move created sensation in
Bombay. Opposite our bungalow,
which was on a side street, was one 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 l said, ex.
perimenting with new explosive, and
this probably started the idea. The ex-
plosive was either dynamite or some
thing very near It Ole day. after the
Captain had been fussing arouad in the
front yard for half an hour, and while
he was reading on the veranda, there
was terrible explosion, 1t seemed as
if our house was lifted foot high, and
everything inside was thrown into con
fusion as it settled back, 1t was an
explosion which was felt for half mile
around, and when we got out doors we
found 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 figure out
what had occurred. The sly old man
and his pals had dug a tunnel from the
native bungalow to within three feet of
ours. 1t was intended to pass under
the house and break ground inside,
there being no floors in our place. The
explosion, which took place in an iron
kettle, was almost over the tunnel, and
the force was mainly downward. The
concussion followed along the ditch and
blew the roof off the native bungalow.
The thieves wero either creeping for
ward or backward in the tunnel, and
death came to them so quickly that they
never knew what hurt them.
Next morning native priest, accom-
panied by scribe, called upon Us to Sc
cure our account of the affair. The
Captain had explained matters to the
authorities, and there had been no in-
quest. The priest said that the sly old
man had been one of his most devoted
EAI