Page:Confessions of a Thug.djvu/116

 "Now for the rest," cried my father in a low tone: "some of you rush on the servants; see that no noise is made; the bullock-driver and others can be dealt with easily."

Some of the men ran to the place the khayet had chosen, and surrounded the unsuspecting cart-driver and the other servants, who were cooking under a tree. I saw and heard a scuffle; but they also were all dead ere they could cry out.

"Come!" said my father and Hoosein taking me by the arms and hurrying me along, "come and see how they are disposed of."

I went, or was rather dragged along, to one side of our encampment, where there was a ravine some feet deep, in the bottom of which a hole had been dug, and by the side of which eight bodies were lying. The father and son, his two wives, the bullock-driver, two male servants, and an old woman; also a servant, who was in the inclosure with the women. The bodies were nearly naked, and presented a ghastly spectacle, as they lay in a confused heap, but just visible from the brink of the ravine.

"Are they all here?" asked my father.

"Yes, Khodawund," said one of the Lughaees, whom I knew.