Page:Folk Tales from Tibet (1906).djvu/164

130 The girl accepted these conditions, and handed over to the Thief a heavy bag of gold. He then bade her farewell and started off with his booty as fast as he could, leaving Rin-dzin behind him in the same room as the corpse.

Early next morning Rin-dzin climbed down from the window, and coming round to the front of the house he asked the lady where her brother was.

"Oh!" said she, "I gave him a big bag of gold last night, and he at once started off with it as fast as he could."

When Rin-dzin heard this he was very angry indeed at the Thief's treachery, and was determined to follow and punish him. So, borrowing a horse from the lady of the house, he galloped off down the road as fast as he could. About mid-day, as he was galloping along, he saw the Thief some distance ahead, sitting under the shade of a tree resting; for not knowing that Rin-dzin had a horse, he did not consider it necessary to go very fast.

When Rin-dzin caught sight of the Thief, he first thought that he would at once go up to him and demand his share of the gold, but on second thoughts he remembered that while he himself was unarmed, the thief possessed both a sword and a musket, so that if it came to a quarrel between them he would probably get the worst of it. So, leaning down over his horse's neck, he pretended not to see the Thief, and galloped past him down the road, as if in mad pursuit. As soon as he was out of sight of the place where the Thief was