"My lord! noble prince! I--I--I," stammered the now trembling wretch. "I--I--mean the promise to me. Nay, look not so, Maharaj," as he observed the robber's face distorted with suppressed rage, the veins of his forehead swelled, and white foam gathering about the corners of the mouth. "Nay, look not so angry! Behold, I kiss your feet: I am a very poor man, and a stranger;" and he joined his hands in supplication as he rose from his heels partly to a kneeling posture. "Would my lord ever have known of the value of those papers had I not told it? Would they not have been thrown away, scattered to the winds, if my poor life had been taken at Itga?" "My promise!--my promise to thee, O son of a base mother! Didst thou not swear to me they would be worth thousands?--lakhs!" cried the robber, raising his voice and gesticulating violently, as he now took up the gold pieces by handfuls, and thrust them into the bag. "A lakh of rupees! and here are only a few paltry coins, for which thou hast brought me fifty coss! What will Anunt Geer of Kullianee say to this poor instalment on his debt? Thief! get me the rest--the rest of the gold they have put aside for thee. Didst thou not promise a lakh?" He had now lashed himself into a fury, which had been his object evidently from the first; and he struck the Lalla with his clenched hand violently upon the head, so that he fell backwards, and lay apparently stunned; but it was only fear. "He will kill him--not that he does not deserve death, the mean hound!" said Fazil Khan, hurriedly to his companion. "When was Pahar Singh ever known to spare a victim? What is to be done, Bulwunt? shall we attack them?" "Alas, Meah!" returned the other, "what can be done?--a sound, a word, and the man is dead. We cannot reach them; and the door was closed and barred when the others went. Ai Bhowani! ai Khundôba! ai Bhugwân! save him! O, that I had brought my gun with me, or even a pistol, Meah; but he dare not kill him; he is only frightening him out of the money. Hush, and listen!" "Raise him, brother," continued Pahar Singh to his companion, laughing; "we will soon see whether this fear is true or feigned; or is the coward soul really gone out of his body?" "Nay, Jemadar, but he breathes," said Maun Singh, raising the Lalla. "Speak, O Toolsee Das! art thou alive?" "My lords! O my lords!" gasped the terrified wretch; "what have I done? what have I done? why am I beaten?" "My thousands, I tell thee!" cried the robber hoarsely. "Where are the papers that were to bring me thousands? Thou hast concealed them to sell to others. Liar! liar, and base-born coward, as thou art!----Enough, Maun Singh," he continued, in another language, which was not understood either by Fazil Khan or his companion, and which both often thought of afterwards; "he must die; the goddess has sent him; he must die for her, lest he lead other men astray."