walls of the room. As she lay awake, Mrs. Bose thought she heard a
noise at the door leading into the other room. The noise came again
and she listened intently. Some one opened the door and then shut
it. Mrs. Bose kept still, listened and watched. Some one again opened
and shut the door gently, then again and again. It struck Mrs. Bose
that this was being done to ascertain whether the inmates of the room
were asleep or awake. She continued to keep perfectly still.

Now the door was pushed wide open and Ram entered, and closed the door
softly behind him. When Mrs. Bose saw him enter, her first thought
was that he was the bearer of some bad news, and she very nearly
asked him what was the matter. But his stealthy movements made her
feign sleep and see what he was about; and as he approached her bed
on tiptoe, she closed her eyes and lay as if peacefully sleeping. He
stood beside the bed apparently watching her. Mrs. Bose's nerves were
tingling with fear, and it took all her powers of self-control to keep
her eyes closed and her breath steady. Just as the effort seemed more
than she could keep up, Ram moved away from her bed.

Through her eye-lashes she watched him creep noiselessly to the table
and examine the cash box. Then he returned to the side of her bed
and coughed. Mrs. Bose again succeeded in keeping perfectly still
and he moved round to his master's bedside. Here he stood motionless
for some seconds and then unfastened the sword. The zemindar was
sleeping heavily and as he detached the sword Ram smiled to himself
as if everything was very satisfactory. He grasped the sword in his
right hand and made a trial stroke. Then, smiling again, he lifted
the curtain of the zemindar's bed with his left hand.

Mrs. Bose felt sure that his motive was murder as well as robbery, and