Page:Confessions of a Thug.djvu/194

 he has in his employ a number of thieves, whose business it is to cut away travellers' saddle-bags from under their heads at night, and when the poor man goes to complain in the morning, he is beaten out of the village. Did we not hear so, Jemadar Sahib?" "Yes, indeed," said I; "don't you remember the man who met us at the village some coss from this, and warned us of the thieves of Oomerkhér, and said he had been robbed of everything he possessed, and then driven out with scarcely a rag to cover him? It was then that I determined to encamp outside, where we might have our own sentinels, and where, if we were robbed, it would be our own fault." "God help me! I am a lost man!" cried the merchant; "I know not what to do;" and he beat his head with his clenched hand. "In those bags is all I am worth in the world; I fled from Surat to save myself from oppression, and it appears that the further I fly the worse usage I meet. It was only two nights ago—after watching till my eyes nearly started from my head from want of sleep, and, not being able to sit longer, I lay down and my eyes closed—that an attempt was made to cut my bags from under me; and, as I awoke, the