It contained
jewels which the poor man hoped to sell to advantage among the
European ladies and gentlemen of the Governor-General's suite. He
replaced his box in his carriage; but in half an hour it was
travelling post-haste to Datiya, by relays of thieves who had been
posted along the road for such occasions. They quarrelled about the
division; swords were drawn, and wounds inflicted. One of the gang
ran off to the magistrate at Sagar, with whom he had before been
acquainted;[6] and he sent him back with a small party, and a letter
to the Datiya Raja requesting that he would get the box of jewels for
the poor merchant. The party took the precaution of searching the
house of the thieves before they delivered the letter to their friend
the minister, and by this means recovered about half the jewels,
which amounted in all to about seven thousand rupees. The merchant
was agreeably surprised when he got back so much of his property
through the magistrate of Mathura, and confirmed the statement of the
thief regarding the dispute with the custom-house officer which
enabled them to discover the value of the box.
Pages:
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935