oits were discovered, and that courage was being
mustered for some attempt to drive them away.

"After a moment the same priest who had addressed me before bent his
face once again over mine.

"'Listen, you Moslem son of a pig,' he hissed in my ear. 'Three more
warnings will be given to you, and if these do not succeed in making you
restore the Ganapati and the jewels then assuredly will you die. You
know whence you stole it. Take back the idol to Ferishtapur, or go to
the nethermost hell to which you belong.'

"With that he slapped my face again and again, with a slipper taken from
his foot, and, writhing in my bonds, I was powerless to revenge, even at
the cost of my life, this crowning and abominable insult.

"I must have swooned once more, for dawn was breaking when the craven
villagers, satisfied that the robbers and murderers had departed, at
last arrived upon the scene, and, loosening the thongs that bound me,
re-awakened me to consciousness of my pitiful plight.

"My womenfolk and my three children were uninjured. I found them,
cowering and terrified, in an inner chamber. But the infidels had
searched every room in their quarters, scattering the contents of chests
on the floors. And at sight of this vile desecration the iron of revenge
even then entered into my soul.

"The eunuch lay dead in the vestibule leading to the harem. My other
servants, who had happened to be outside the house at the time of the
assault, had fled, and in the shame of their desertion never again dared
to show their faces in my presence. The kotwal of the district made an
investigation, but I held my own counsel, and spoke not one word about
the Ganapati or the blue diamonds. So the outrage was set down as the
work of dacoits, and although in point of fact nothing had been stolen I
felt no call on me to disturb this finding of the magistrate.

"About a week later a new disaster overtook me. In the full light of
day, when a breeze happened to be blowing, my standing crops were
burned, and my fields left a blackened wilderness. By whose hand the
fire-brand had been applied, no man could tell. An accident, or the
first of the promised warnings?--this I asked myself, and I strove hard
to believe that it was ill-luck and nothing more.

"Another full week passed, and I began to hope that the threatened
persecution had indeed been abandoned. Recovered from my wounds and
bruises, I was able now to be out and about again, endeavouring to