If they had reason to expect that the local police would be vigilant--a rare occurrence--they concealed their spears in a bundle of reeds or coarse straw, which one of them carried on his head, followed by another to personate the purchaser of the fodder. On arriving in front of the shop, the bundle was thrown on the ground, the cord hastily loosened, the spears extracted and the torches lighted. Then the Jemadar invoked the aid of his patron deity and vowed a grateful offering if the chest should at once yield to his blows. Raising their war-cry _Deen! Deen!_ they furiously assaulted the bystanders, pelting them with stones, striking them with their spears, and even wounding them if obstinate. The Jemadar, the torch-bearers, and four or five determined men, under favour of the tumult, broke into the house, smashing doors and all other impediments. In a few minutes afterwards the house was abandoned by the unwelcome intruders, who moved off to the place of rendezvous as fast as their weighty plunder would permit them; the Jemadar piously imploring of Bhugwan to send their pursuers in a wrong direction. Should one of the gang happen to have been slain, his spirit was likewise invoked, and spirituous liquor and a goat promised to his manes. At every temple on the road, and at every stream they had to cross, they threw down a rupee or two to propitiate the genius of the place. When within a couple of miles of their encampment they called aloud Koo-Koo. If no response were heard they pushed on rapidly, occasionally imitating the call of the partridge: when close at hand they uttered a hissing noise. On their actual arrival they were certain to find everything packed up and ready for a start. Mounted on their rough, hardy little ponies they would cover a distance of sixty to eighty miles in twenty-four hours for two or three consecutive days, until fairly beyond all danger of pursuit. Any one was allowed to join a gang on payment of a few rupees, though not to carry a spear or enter the house until his coolness and courage had been freely tested. If a Dacoit committed homicide he was obliged to expiate his blood-guiltiness by making a _poojah_, at which he trusted his comrades with half a crown's worth of liquor. In the division of spoils the Jemadar claimed one-tenth in addition to the repayment of his advances towards fitting out the expedition. The balance was then divided among the entire gang, the leader again sharing, and provision was made for the wounded and for the widows of those who had fallen.