90 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



from inside her hut ; the other a youth of seven- 

 teen, last seen sleeping before the village shop 

 in the heart of the hamlet. He asked me if I 

 would join him in the endeavour to unearth this 

 strange mystery, and as I expected to be in that 

 neighbourhood for a month I readily consented. 



About a week after this a child was taken from 

 a Bheel's hut some distance from the village. The 

 child was said to be sleeping in its mother's arms 

 at the time. She heard a rustle during the night 

 and, getting up, missed the child. Thinking that it 

 had crawled away, she searched round the hut 

 and, not finding it, gave the alarm. She found 

 the bamboo door partly pushed aside, so knew 

 that some animal had entered. Not a trace was 

 to be seen on the hard-beaten clay in front of the 

 hut, only a drop or two of blood showed that the 

 poor infant had been carried away by some brute. 

 We felt sure now that this night's work at least 

 was done by a wolf, as both Cumbeiiedge and I 

 had heard of cases of wolves stealing into houses 

 at night and taking sleeping children from their 

 mother's arms without awakening the parent. We 

 scouted the country for miles round, using several 

 good dogs in the search, without any result. Two 

 days afterwards the lieutenant's servant came to 

 me early in the morning and said his master wished 

 to see me, as the Demon had come to the village 

 in the night and had carried off the sonar (gold- 

 smith). He knew it was the Demon, as his marks 

 were plainly to be seen in the roadway. When I 

 got there I found a large crowd collected near the 



