"Good," said I; "now sit down there, and wait till they come." "Why is this?" cried both; "by what right do you detain travellers? we will go on." "Dare to stir at your peril," said I; "you have intruded on us, and must pay the penalty." "What penalty? Are you thieves? if so, take what you will from us and let us go." "We are not thieves," said Peer Khan; "but stay quiet, we are worse." "Worse! then, brother, we are lost," cried one to the other; "these villains are Thugs; it is even as I whispered to you when you must needs stop among them: they have been at their horrid work, and yonder lie those whom they have destroyed." "Yes," said I, "unhappy men, you have guessed right; yonder lie the dead, and you will soon be numbered with them; it is useless to strive against your destiny." I turned away, for I felt, Sahib--I felt sick at the thoughts of destroying these inoffensive people. They might have passed on--but Peer Khan was right, they had detected the dead, though the bodies had been laid out and covered as if the senseless forms were sleeping--but they lay like lumps of clay. No measured breathing disturbed the folds of the sheets which covered them, and a glance had been sufficient to tell the tale to the unfortunate people who had seen them. But I shook off the feeling as best I could; had I given way to it, or betrayed its existence to my associates, the power I possessed over them would have been lost--and it was the spirit of my existence. "They must die," said I to Peer Khan; "you were right, and they had guessed the truth; but I wish it had been otherwise, and the lazy Lughaees had done their work quickly; they might have passed on, and we have had a good morning's work without them; they are not worth having." "I would not exchange places with them for anything you could name, Meer Sahib, and perhaps it were well to put them out of their suspense." "Do so, Peer Khan, and get the rest with them removed; I will deal with one of the other two coming up. These fellows are half dead already with fear, and the others I will fall on in my own way; I hate such passive victims as these will be." Peer Khan and another went to the miserable wretches, who remained sitting on the ground where we had left them. I watched them; they stood up mechanically when they were ordered to do so, and stretched out their necks for the fatal roomal, and were slain as unresistingly as sheep beneath the knife of the butcher. The rest of the travellers were not long coming, and were only two, as the others had said. "Now," said I to Motee, "these fellows must be dealt with at once: you take one, I will the other; they must not utter a word."