punished. We shall know how clever you are!"

The night was pitch-dark. He noiselessly opened the small window
of the boat and saw a number of men, with flaming torches in their
hands and armed with heavy sticks, coming down the bank. There was no
time to call his men. He seized his loaded revolver. But what was one
against so many! He decided to bolt. The land way was barred by the
dacoits. What of the river? He was a good swimmer. But the water looked
black as ink and swarmed with crocodiles. Yet to stay in the boat meant
certain death. If he gained the opposite bank, he could make for his
father-in-law's house, which was near the river and where his wife was
then staying. He might escape the crocodiles. He determined to risk it.

Like a flash all this passed through his mind. Opening the other
window he clambered out stealthily and slipped into the water. A
few powerful strokes carried him across. He stumbled up the bank and
raced through the thorny jungle to his father-in-law's house.

The sleeping family were disturbed by his violent knocking. As soon
as he was admitted, he went to his wife's room. She was horrified to
hear of his danger. After a hasty bath and change she insisted that he
should eat something, and while he was refreshing himself, she informed
her father of his son-in-law's escape and predicament. To her surprise,
her father said: "I am sorry, but he must leave my house."

"O! father, how can he?" she pleaded.

"He must" repeated her father.

The daughter fell at her parent's feet and implored him not to drive