The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-22
A THUGS CoNscIpNcE

returned from Dacoit-hunting in Bur ma, had been relating our exploits.
 Fifty years ago fighting was fight Ing" he went on, but now"--
 We smiled the smile of the young and up to date. What did he know of the vagaries of the modern savage; of the Dacoit who came in the night noiselessly and barter life and death with an ugly and unnecessarily large stab in the breast?
 The Colonel read our thoughts
 "Dacoits may be a stealthier foe," he said, but for undiluted vagabondism and downright villainy give me the Thugs"
 ''They must have been bad," I vent- ured.
 At the very best; and yet I found little grain of virtue in one," said the vetran. Shall tell you yarn? It will be like a page of ancient history now, but don't think it has been told before; and really Hosein Ali was a picturesque scoundrel who deserved record-and hanging.
 It was in the autumn of '34," pro- ceeded the Colonel. 1T went out from Hyderabad under Major Groves north ward across the Godavery after Thugs. The authorities were getting their eyes wide open at last, and a great effort was being made to exterminate the vil- lains. After a week or so of recon- noitring and inquiry we separated. Groves sent me off on my own account with a troop of about thirty sepoys and couple of noncoms. We had no succePss until Hosein Ali fell into our hands. He was taken, not exactly red- handed, but just after the act, with the proofs of guilt thick upon him and the spoil in his possession. Yet he de- nied with all the stubbornness of in- nocence
 I know nothing of what you say, sahib. l am from beyond the Kristna' T looked long and fixedly at the man. He was a fine specimen of fine race. Tall and straight as bamboo comedy of feature and limb, with a handsome and well-kept beard and moustache, and black eyes which glow ed with indignation and hint of de- f1ance, he looked anything but the scoundrel he was. If I had not been so absolutely certain of his guilt, must have doubted that one of so gallant a bearing could be that worst of all criminals, a Thug.
 What are you doing here, then?" I asked him. What is your trade, your occupation? How did you come by, these pearls?"
 If I answer the sahib at all,' he re- piled, it is that he may be satisfied and let me go on my journey in peace l am on travel honestly to my sisters wedding, and the stones are wedding gift
 "The words came glibly off his tongue; but just as my eyes left his saw the defiant expression change for 3 second to Q furtive glance, which seemed to me to say, Is he fool enough to believe it?'
 CT don't believe a word of it." said I, replying to his glance; you are a Thug and murderer, and deserve hanging hundred times; but-make yourself useful; tell me your compan- ions, show me their naunts, take me to the graves of your victims, and your life may be spared
 4tI know nothing of what you say, sahib,' he repeated doggedly.
 "'Take him away I commanded, and in ten minutes time hang him.
 "Of course this was pure bounce,
 
 sentence sharply and rose to leave the hut. As turned my back I heard a scuffle, and, looking quickly round, was just, in time to ward the prisoner S hands from my throat. Taking the sepoys by surprise, he had with great energy dashed them aside and sprung at me.
 "In another moment the men had h,:- lo ,3 desperately, he was bound and dragged to his feet as resumed my seat.
 "'None but the guilty would have behaved so.' said sternly-1 knew no better in those days. You have seal- ed your doom!'
 "The man took a deep breath-he waa still panting from the struggle and shouted with an excess of strength and enthusiasm:
 "'Jey Bhowanee.'
 "It was the war-cry of Thuggee- The invocation to the goddess. If any thing more was needed to convict him, it was provided in the extraordinary signs of vice and cupidity which I had looked for in vain at rst were now most prominent in the angry, passion distorted face
 "AfLGf SnOTt COnSluSIdllUu SSHt him back to confinement. It was plain that we had made a capture of the first importance. The circumstances under which he had been taken, the demean- or and bearing of the man, his strength of will and virflity, marked him as more than ordinarily dangerous. Such a man would, without doubt, be the leader, or at least a very prominent meber, of any gang with which he was connected, and would possess just the sort of information we wanted. On the other hand, Just these qualities in virtue would in all probability prevent us from acquiring it. Informers are supposed to be built of different mate rial
 ..fIowever. I determined to try him, and as a first step I had him informed that unless he consented to give the information we wanted, he would cer- 4ainly be hanged in the morning. As an extra argument we built gollows onposite the window of his cell.
 .sAt rst this only excited his deris- ion. or an hour or more he kept up a stream of ribald and obscene jests, varied with vindictive and compre- bepsiye curses which made the sepoy yuard alternately laugh and shake