152 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



only effect an entrance by digging a hole through one 

 of the outer walls. This they do with a short, sharp- 

 pointed iron bar. 



Now about the time I speak of a party of thieves had 

 thus one night broken into the house of a banker ; it 

 was, I think, in this very city. The thieves had collected 

 their plunder and were departing, when the banker 

 awoke, heard a noise, and ran down. He entered the 

 room just in time to see the last of the thieves crawling 

 out through the hole ; his legs were still inside. With 

 great presence of mind, the banker ran forward and 

 forced himself between them. The thief was now 

 caught : with his legs separated he could not get out, 

 and, with his arms and shoulders beyond the wall, 

 neither could he force himself back. 



The banker summoned his servants and sent for the 

 police. Meanwhile he remained exultant : through this 

 thief the rest would be apprehended, and his property 

 recovered. But in this he was disappointed. So soon 

 as the other thieves found that their comrade was fixed 

 in the hole they took measures to prevent his betray- 

 ing them. They drew their swords, cut off his head, 

 and carried it off, together with their plunder. The 

 police on their arrival found only a bleeding neck 

 protruding from the hole, and a body that no one 

 could identify. 



The next story, I think, is even more ghastly. I was 

 on a visit to my brother. He was the subordinate, or, 

 as it was then termed, the "joint," magistrate of a rather 

 wild district. A band of dacoits — that is, armed robbers 

 — had lately infested it. The band had been dispersed, 



