was that the
theft must have been committed by one of those inside the building, for
nobody had got in from without.

The officers' native servants and the sepoy soldiers, to a man, stoutly
declared that they knew nothing about it; and the officer of the day,
with very great disgust, went to make his report to the Colonel.

Now the Colonel was a hard-headed old Scotchman, who had spent the best
part of his life in India, and knew the Hindoos and their ways by heart.
He heard the story to an end without any sign of what he thought of it,
except a queer twinkle in the corner of his small gray eye; and then he
gave orders to turn out the men for morning parade.

When the Colonel appeared on the parade-ground, everybody expected that
the first thing would be an inquiry about the stolen money; but that was
not the old officer's way. Everything went on just as usual, and the
thief probably chuckled to himself at the idea of getting off so easily.
But if so, he chuckled a little too soon. Just as the parade was over,
and the men were about to "dismiss," the Colonel stepped forward, and
shouted, "Halt!"

The men wonderingly obeyed. The Colonel planted himself right in front
of the line (carrying a small bag under his arm, as was now noticed for
the first time), and running his eye keenly over the long ranks of white
frocks and dark faces, spoke to them in Hindoostanee:

"Soldiers! I find there are dogs among you who are not 'true to their
salt,' and after taking the money of the Ranee of Inglistan [Queen of
England], steal from her officers. But such misdeeds never go
unpunished. Last night" (here the Colonel's tone suddenly became very
deep and solemn) "I had a _dream_. I dreamed that a black cloud hovered
over me, and out of it came a figure--the figure of Kali."

At the name of this terrible goddess (who holds the same place in the
Brahmin religion as the Evil One in our own) the swarthy faces turned
perfectly livid, and more than one stalwart fellow was seen to shiver
from head to foot.

"'There is a thief among your soldiers,' she said, 'and I will teach you
how to detect him. Give each of your men a splinter of bamboo, and the
thief, let him do what he may, will be sure to get the _longest_; and
when he is found, let him dread my vengeance.'"

By this time every soldier on the ground was looking so frightened that
had the Colonel expected to detect the thief by his looks, he might have
thought the whole regiment