e first to you, O
kadi, one of the judges of Akbar.'

"I looked steadily at the man. Methought I saw once more the furtive,
shifty eyes of the maniac.

"'What proof have you of this story?' I asked.

"'Take some sowars, and ride back with me three days' journey. There
will I show you the graves of these last victims, and of some hundreds
of others buried on previous occasions in the same gorge.'

"'Where is your companion--your brother thug?'

"'He has a shop at the corner of the Chota Bazaar and Dhurmtola. There
he is now selling his merchandise.'

"'But that is the shop of Kubar Bux. He dwells here in Delhi.'

"'Kubar Bux is his name.'

"'He is a well-known and respected merchant.'

"'None the less is he a thug,' answered the informer, with what I took
to be a vindictive little smile.

"Then once again did a new thought leap into my mind. This man might
have a feud with Kubar Bux, and peradventure he had merely invented the
story of thugs and wholesale murder for the latter's undoing. I know
well the wily ways of some men--how they will even imperil their own
lives to compass the ruin of an enemy.

"'If I go with you now,' I said, 'to the shop of Kubar Bux, what proof
will you give me of his connexion with this story of thuggee?'

"'On his person he carries the sacred pickaxe of Bowani, which makes him
our leader when thugs come together. And hidden in one of his bales of
silk you will find a case of jewelled rings that actually belonged to
another Delhi merchant, who was of the party of travellers that recently
perished, on his way home from a visit to Baroda. You will but have to
inquire as to this same merchant's disappearance, and get his relatives
to identify the casket as the dead man's property.'

"'That, indeed, will be proof,' I assented. 'Come, let us go to the
Chota Bazaar.'

"As we passed out of the courthouse, I signalled to two sepoys on guard
there to follow us.

"Keeping close to the denouncer, I allowed him to lead me through the
narrow crowded streets. Soon we were at the corner where was the shop of
Kubar Bux, and there amidst his bales of merchandise the man himself
was seated, a venerable and dignified figure. Yet at sight of me and my
companion I thought an ashen pallor stole into the nut-brown of his
complexion.

"As I stood with the informer in front of the tiny shop, which was too
small for all of us to enter, the two soldiers closed up behind us. Then
unmistakably did Kub