The bars of the window were broken. Suruj Bul, see thou to that; and,
O men, put speed into your work, for a runner must go with the news
to The Tiger of Gokral-Seetarun.' Thereon, Suruj Bul, leaning with his
shoulder, brake in the bars of the window, and I, beating her with a
whip, made the Havildar's mare skip among the melon-beds till they
were much trodden with hoof-prints.
These things being made, I returned to the Thana, and the goat was
slain, and certain portions of the walls were blackened with fire, and
each man dipped his clothes a little into the blood of the goat. Know,
O Sahib, that a wound made by man upon his own body can, by those
skilled, be easily discerned from a wound wrought by another man.
Therefore, the Havildar, taking his tulwar, smote one of us lightly
on the forearm in the fat, and another on the leg, and a third on the
back of the hand. Thus dealt he with all of us till the blood came;
and Suruj Bul, more eager than the others, took out much hair. O Sahib,
never was so perfect an arrangement. Yea, even I would have sworn that
the Thana had been treated as we said.
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