wn instantly he would set fire to the house. Seeing no
chance of help, he came down, and was bound with his own waistband in
the same manner. When the subadar remonstrated against this
treatment, Maheput struck him over the face. They then plundered the
house of all the property it contained, to the value of six hundred
and fifty rupees; and took the subadar and his brother to the
jungles; and, in the morning, demanded a ransom of one thousand
rupees. At last they came down to four hundred rupees and the horse,
which the subadar kept for his own riding. The subadar consented, and
his brother was released to get the money and horse. He borrowed the
money and sent it with the horse through Bhowanee Deen Tewaree,
landholder of Ladeeka Poorwa, and the subadar was released. He
presented three petitions, through the Resident, and orders were sent
from the Durbar to the local authorities, Hurdut Sing and Monna Lal,
but they were both in league with the robbers, and tried to get the
subadar made away with, to save further trouble, and he sought
security with his regiment.*

[* Meherban Tewaree, subadar, was present, as a witness at the
subsequent trial of Maheput and Gujraj, who were sentenced to
transportation beyond seas for life.]

In January 1847, Maheput and his gang attacked the village of
Bahapoor, in the Rodowlee district; and after plundering all the
houses, seized and carried off among others Seetul, the spirit-
dealer, and the two sons of Reehta, the widow of Bhosoo, one twenty-
two years of age, and the other eighteen. They tortured them with
red-hot irons, and tied bamboos round their necks every day for
fifteen days. Maheput then shot the eldest son, and cut his body to
pieces with his sword. The younger son, at night, made his escape
while they were asleep, and returned to tell the tale of his
brother's murder to his mother. Seetul, the Kalwar, got his uncle to
lend him twenty-eight rupees, for which he was released.

In April 1847, Maheput Sing and his gang attacked the house of
Ramoutar, Brahmin, of the Brahmin village of Guneshpoor, in Rodowlee;
plundered it of properly valued at one hundred rupees, and then bound
Ramoutar, his father and two sons, and took them off to the jungles;
and there tortured them all for seven days. He then had the two boys,
one nine years old and the other five, suspended to a tree and
flogged; and Ramoutar himself tied to a thorny tree and beaten till
the blood flowed down and d