“Look at me carefully:  do you know me?”

“No baba, but you are my son.  Pray, spare my life!  See, I am half dead already and ruined as well!”

“I am Karim Sheikh,” said the sardar impressively.

“So you are,” replied Chandra Babu, after recovering from his intense surprise; “but why have you turned dacoit?”

“It was owing to your oppression, which drove me from my house, and deprived me of the means of livelihood.  All my companions here have been beggared by you, and scores of other families too.  The whole of Kadampur and Simulgachi are clamouring for your blood, and Allah has appointed me to be the minister of his vengeance.  Time was when I had to cringe to you, just as you are doing to me, but never did I receive mercy from you.  Now the tables are turned.  I might kill you, and who would dare to inform the police folk?” (Here Karim made a vicious prod with his talwar, which passed within half an inch of the terror-stricken victim’s throat.) “I might put you out of caste by slaying one of your cows and forcing you to eat its flesh.  You deserve all this and more—­but we will be merciful.  Swear by your goddesses Kali and Durga that you will never in future demand more than four annas in the rupee yearly for loans of money or rice.  Swear that you will never again bribe the amla or peons of the Courts; swear that you will never again falsify the accounts of your Khataks.”

Chandra Babu took the oaths demanded with an appearance of unction and then implored his captors to release him.

“Wait a minute,” was Karim’s reply, “we must collect our belongings.”

So saying he ordered the dacoits to extinguish their torches and follow him with the bags of money.  He led them to a ravine on the river bank, about a coss (two miles) distant, where the spoil was equitably divided according to a list of names and amounts due in Karim’s possession.  Then after arranging for alibis in case of criminal proceedings, the band dispersed, well satisfied with their night’s work.

Chandra Babu’s neighbours made no sign until the dacoits were well out of hearing, when they flocked in to unloose his bonds and offer hypocritical condolences.  The village Chaukidar (watchman) was sent off to the police station, and next day arrived the Sub-Inspector with a posse of constables to investigate the dacoity.  After recording the complainant’s statement, they endeavoured to secure additional evidence, but Chandra Babu was so cordially disliked, and the dacoits’ vengeance so dreaded, that not a soul came forward to corroborate his story.  Karim was arrested, with half a dozen accomplices named by Chandra Babu.  They had no difficulty in proving that they were attending a wedding ceremony five miles away on the night of the alleged dacoity.  So the case was reported to headquarters as false; and Chandra Babu escaped prosecution for deceiving the police, by giving a heavy bribe to the Sub-Inspector.