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Rh suddenly checked by another plaintive groan which seemed to issue this time from the ceiling.

"Again!" ejaculated the startled sardar.

Bhiku sat aghast, superstitious fears now coming over him. Madhav also felt uneasy though from other causes.

"This place has been long untenanted," observed Bhiku speaking in a whisper, "who knows what beings may have made this room their abode."

Though, of course, equally given to superstition, the much stronger mind of the sardar did not so easily yield to such influences. Generally, their lawless and terrible profession renders people of this class habitually conversant with those scenes which are best calculated to give rise to fears of a superhuman character, and though they as firmly believe as other ignorant people in the existence of superhuman agencies, habit renders them less liable to their impressions.

"Or somebody may be lurking somewhere," said the sardar, "this must be looked to; you watch our friend here."

The sardar tore up an edge from his small dhoti and rolling it up into a wick, dipped it in the oil of the lamp, and ignited it in its flame. Thus furnished with a light, he cautiously opened the door. He then proceeded to examine every creek and corner of the veranda which lined the single row of rooms, of which the one now occupied by Madhav and his watchers was the middle one. Not finding anything in the veranda to explain the cause of his alarm he proceeded