by their servants. The evening meal had
been cooked and eaten. The half-moon had risen, and at a little distance
from the fire a troupe of musicians was performing--zithers were
playing, cymbals clanking, tum-tums beating. From the peculiar rhythm of
the drums, which all we thugs knew well, we were made aware that the
appointed hour had come.

"'Our leader stood in the midst of the gathering, ostensibly warming his
hands at the blaze of the fire. Gradually and naturally we took our
appointed places, many of them customarily taken before this night so as
to excite no suspicion at the final moment. And little did the destined
victims of Bowani dream that behind each of them now was an accomplished
strangler, with the roomal ready to his hands, while on either side
squatted a holder of legs and a holder of arms.

"'Then there happened a thing that will explain, O kadi, why I have come
to you this day to tell my story. I am an adept in my craft, and
therefore was one of those entrusted to use the roomal. My particular
victim was a comely youth, perhaps seventeen years of age--son of a
landowner, he had told me in confidence, travelling with a bag of gold
mohurs for his father. This lad had been in my close companionship
during the journey, and he had come to show great affection for me. I
liked him well, but there was no pity in my heart, for it is good to die
in honour of Bowani.

"'At last came the signal of death--the jhirnee we call it. Our leader
raised aloft his right hand, and said aloud so that all could hear the
agreed-upon words: "The moon shines bright to-night." This was our
command to act, and in an instant every appointed victim was in the
death throes. Five minutes later all were dead--four-and-thirty of
them--and not one faintest cry of alarm or of agony had been uttered.
Thus skilfully had our work been done. When all was over, the musicians
were still playing their stringed instruments and hand-drums, softly now
after a great volume of sound that would have overwhelmed any chance
scream of terror.

"'But in the very act of strangling, a dreadful revelation had come to
me. Just before the signal was given the lad had turned his countenance
toward me, and his eyes were looking into mine. In his fixed regard, as
I realized later, there was the glow of love. But this was transformed
of an instant into affrighted horror, as my hand at his ear gave the
noose the deft and fatal twist. In the space of a singl