Page:Confessions of a Thug.djvu/191

 Your bunneas are rascals: I am refused grain at nearly double the price I paid yesterday; I am refused shelter at night. In God's name, what am I to do? Gentlemen," cried he to us, "what am I to do?" Bhudrinath answered, as I was going to speak, and, to my astonishment, angrily. "What would you have? O discontented man! I suppose some place has been offered to you, and you have thought it not good enough; or are you drunk with opium? or has hunger after your journey spoilt your temper? Go, betake yourself to the bazar; be thankful that you can get any place; and, if no one will shelter you, lie in the street; bethink yourself that many a better man has done so before you." The man stood aghast: he looked first at us, then at the kotwal and his men, while expressions of delight at his discomfiture ran through the kotwal's party: "Well said!" "Proper fellows!" "He ought to be turned out of the village," &c. At last, without saying a word, he threw down his turban and ran out, bellowing as loud as he could.

We all burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "That is a queer fellow," said I to the Kotwal;