"'Show me the swords,' cried a Pindharee in the crowd; 'my brother disappeared two nights ago, and I have sought him in vain since.'
"They were brought. Ah! Meer Sahib, how can I tell you that Ramdeen Singh's was instantly recognised by the Pindharee, who vehemently demanded our blood from Cheetoo?
"'This is conclusive against you,' said Cheetoo; 'what can you say?'
"Ramdeen muttered a few words in exculpation, but they were unheeded.
"'I beg further to represent, Peer-o-Moorshid,' cried Hidayut Khan, 'that if you have any further doubts of what I have declared to be the fact, I am ready to accompany any men you may choose to select; I will guide them to the spot where that man's unfortunate brother lies in his unblessed grave; and not only him will I disinter, but march after march beyond that one will I dig up, at one place one body, at another two, until we come to where Ghuffoor Khan and his unfortunate Saees lie, both in the same hole.'
"Cheetoo shuddered. 'It is too true,' said he. 'Alas! my brave men have fallen by the base hands of these stranglers—men who ought to have purchased their martyrdom by death on the battle-field. Where are the saddles and their contents? Let them be produced.'
"This was worse and worse. Nuzzur Ali's saddle, you may remember, was old and worn, and he had taken that of the Pindharee we last killed. The brother knew it and wept over it. In the lining was all the plunder he had got, just as we had received it; and around my own waist was the man's humeana, with which I had replaced my own; it had his name on it written in Persian, which I had not observed. It was enough,—we were convicted; I repeated the Belief, and gave myself up to death.
"Yet I once more uplifted my voice. 'Nuwab!' I exclaimed, 'it is of no use to contend further with destiny; were we a thousand times innocent, this array of facts against us would convict us. I now conceal not that we are Thugs—followers of the blessed Bhowanee, who will receive us into Paradise. We shall die by your command, but why should that vile wretch live?—he who, for a greedy demand of more than his share, which he knew he could not receive according to our laws, has denounced us, has broken his oath, and been unfaithful to the salt he has eaten? Is he not a Thug? has he not joined me and a hundred others in our work ever since he was a boy? He cannot deny it; look at him,—look at his cowardly features convulsed by terror,—they show that what I say is true. If he had been, as he says he is, an honest man, why did he not cause us to be seized when we were in the act of murder—upon the very bodies? He might have done so, for the deeds, except that of Ghuffoor Khan, were committed in the first watch of the night, when the camp was awake, and every one engaged in his own business. Why did he not then denounce us? he would have been believed. But no! he wanted half of the plunder of that man's brother; it was denied him, as similar requests had been before, and he has become a thing for men to spit at. If we die, he should not be spared, because he is a Thug as we are, because he is a traitor and a coward!'
"'Liar!' cried Hidayut Khan, scarcely able to speak between rage and fear; 'Liar! I defy thee to say I ever strangled a person.'
"'No,' said I to Cheetoo, 'he was too great a coward—he dared not! and my lord may have remarked that he used the slang term to express his meaning in the last words he uttered.'