HKB
fate would lead him to destruction. Why is it, Sahib, that one has these presentiments? I have often felt them during my lifetime, but I never could account for them.
At last he came. I saw an object darken the doorway, hesitate for a moment, and then pass in over the body of Junglee, who snored so loudly and naturally that I could have declared he was asleep, had I not known the contrary by having spoken to him a short time before. Alla! Alla! Sahib, how my heart beat!--I could hear its throbbings, and they seemed to be so loud in my breast that I thought he would hear them too. Another thought flashed across me--could he be armed? and would he attempt to destroy me? It might be; and I almost trembled as I thought how I was to lie inactive and in his power while he abstracted the bag; I was on the point of leaping up and passing my weapon through his body, but I dismissed the idea. He is a thief, a miserable thief, and has not courage to bring a weapon, much less to use it; and he will want both his hands too--he cannot have one. So I lay quiet, with my hands on the hilt of my sword. The tent was very low, and he was obliged to advance stooping: he reached my side and knelt down, and as I feigned the hard breathing of sleep, I felt his warm breath when he looked over me and into my eyes to see whether I really slept or not. He appeared satisfied that I did, for he instantly thrust his hand under the pillow, but so quietly that I could not have felt it had I been asleep: but the bag was not on that side, it was under my other ear; he felt it, but found, I suppose, that he could not abstract it without his awakening me; so he felt about on the ground for a piece of straw or a blade of grass, and began tickling my ear on the side next to him. I obeyed the intention of the action, and turned towards him with a grunt: it startled him, and he was still for a moment: but again his hand was groping; I felt the bag recede--recede till it was withdrawn from the pillow; I heard the clink of the money as he placed it on his shoulder, and I was content: I saw too that Junglee was not at the door (though when he had gone I know not--having been too much occupied by my own situation), and that the Bhutteara was aware of it. He stopped, and murmured in a low tone, "Strange that he should be gone; but he knows the way and will not disappoint me." Another step, and he was beyond the threshold, and in the rough grasp of Peer Khan, Motee, and a dozen others.
"Capitally managed!" cried I, as I ran to the door and joined the group: "strike a light, one of you; let us see the face of this Roostum among thieves--a fellow who dares to rob a Thug's camp and defy him to his beard."
A light was brought, and there stood the trembling wretch, with the bag of rupees still on his shoulder, and clutching it as though it were his own. "Ha!" said I, "so it is you, Peeroo, and the wolf who was so wary has fallen into the hands of the shepherds at last; he would not take the little bait, but the large flock was well watched, and he has fallen into the trap. And now, rascal," I continued, "thou wouldst have robbed us, and dost deserve to die, yet upon thy answers to the questions I will put to thee depends thy life or death."