On one pretence or another I delayed our associates until the other party had proceeded far beyond the risk of hearing any noise, should there be any; and now, seeing everything ripe for the purpose, I called out for some tobacco, the word we had agreed to use, as being least likely to attract attention or inspire suspicion. I had planted myself behind the man I had been speaking to, and as I spoke my handkerchief was thrown! Three years' rest had not affected the sureness of my hold, and he lay a corpse at my feet in an instant. My work was done, and I looked around to see the fate of the rest; one poor wretch alone struggled, but his sufferings were quickly ended, and the party was no more! "Quick, my lads!" cried I to the Lughaees, "quick about your work!" One of them grinned.
"Why," said he, "did you not observe Doolum and four others go away to yon brushwood when we reached this spot? Depend upon it they have the grave ready, or they have been idle dogs."
And it was even so; the grave had been dug while the unsuspecting travellers sat and conversed with us. We were so busily engaged in stripping the dead, that no one observed the approach of two travellers, who had come upon us unawares. Never shall I forget their horror when they saw our occupation; they were rooted to the spot from extreme terror: they spoke not, but their eyes glared wildly as they gazed, now at us and now at the dead. "Miserable men," said I, approaching them, "prepare for death! you have been witnesses of our work, and we have no resource but your destruction for our own preservation."
"Sahib," said one of them, collecting his energies, "we are men, and fear not to die, since our hour is come;" and he drew himself up proudly and gazed at me. He was a tall, powerful man, well armed, and I hesitated to attack him.
"I give you one alternative," said I; "become a Thug, and join our band—you shall be well cared for, and you will prosper."
"Never!" he exclaimed; "never shall it be said that Tilluk Sing, the descendant of a noble race of Rajpoots, herded with murderers, and lived on their unblessed gains. No! if I am to die, let it be now. Ye are many; but if one among you is a man, let him step forward, and here on this even sand I will strike one blow for my deliverance;" and he drew his sword, and stood on the defensive.
"I am that man," cried I, though the band with one voice earnestly dissuaded me from the encounter, and declared that he was more than a match for me: "I am that man; now take your last look on the heavens and the earth, for by Alla you never quit this spot!"
"Come on, boasting boy!" he exclaimed; "give me but fair play, and bid none of your people interfere, and it may not be as you say."
"Hear, all of you," cried I to them; "meddle not in this matter—'tis mine, and mine only. As for the other, deal with him as ye list;" and in an instant more he was numbered with the dead.
"These are your cowardly tricks," cried the Rajpoot, now advancing on me, for he had stood contemplating the fate of his companion; "my end may follow his, but I shall die the death of a soldier, and not that of a mangy dog as he has done."