"May your prosperity increase, noble Cheetoo," said I; "if your slave can help you to a few more sums like the present, he will only feel himself too happy, and too honoured by distinction like the present. For the men I had with me, I made the same terms as you have accepted for the whole, and they were well satisfied."
"And for yourself, Meer Sahib?"
"I have not got much," said I; "perhaps I might have arrogated to myself the distinction of one of the leaders, but I refrained: they gave me five thousand rupees, however, and I am satisfied."
"Nay," said Cheetoo; "it was too little, my friend, and I advise you to get as much as you can next time. And as you have behaved so well in this instance at the head of the advance-party, I will give it into your command in future, and must satisfy Ghuffoor Khan as well as I can; he is a good soldier, but a thick-headed fellow, who is always for helping himself, and setting fire to towns and villages, by which we seldom get half as much, especially from these rich places, as we could do by a little management and a few soft words."
"May your condescension increase, Nuwab!" cried I; "your servant, Inshalla! will never disappoint you."
I took leave of him soon afterwards, and joined the sahoukars, who were sitting below counting the money, which lay in large heaps on the floor. They received me joyfully, and expressed in forcible language how much they were indebted to me for my active interference in their behalf. They would have pressed on me the five hundred rupees they had promised when I presented them to Cheetoo, but I refused it.
"No," said I; "if I have done you service, and I think I have, I will not sell my good offices. You have dealt as well by me as I have by you, so the balance is even; all I pray of you is, to let me have my money in gold bars, which I can easily conceal, except a few hundred rupees for present expenses."
"It is granted," said the Sahoukar; and I had shortly afterwards the gold in my possession; and taking a few of the sahoukars' men to guard me, I bent my way to the camp, the bright fires of which sparkled through the darkness on the plain beyond the town, revealing many a wild group which huddled round them to warm themselves from the effects of the almost chilling night breeze. I was soon at my little tent, which consisted of a cloth stretched over three spears, two of which were stuck into the ground, and another tied across them as a ridge pole; and assisted by Peer Khan, I put the gold into the bags I had made in the flaps of my saddle, and sewed them over. I was ten thousand rupees richer in one night!
"This is grand work," said Peer Khan; "here we have had no trouble; and if we go on at this rate, we shall return far richer than after the toil and risk of a hundred Thuggee expeditions."
"I am to have the advance-guard always," said I; "and it shall be my own fault if we do not always secure a good share: for my own part, I have foresworn Thuggee, as long as there is a Pindharee chief to erect his standard."