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water. He is almost certain to come and take the rest of my hák, and then you can go up to him and seize him."

Now the deputy-inspector did not like the idea of "going up" to a man of that character. However, he took the pheran, and asked to be shown how to draw water. The gardener's wife tied him to the weighted end of the beam, which acted as a lever for drawing up the water, and then told him to pull the string that was attached to the other end.^[1] He did so, and as will be supposed, was carried up some twenty feet into the air. Then the gardener's wife fastened the down end of the beam to a peg in the ground, and taking up his clothes, left him.

"Oh, oh!" exclaimed the deputy-inspector.

"Be quiet," said the gardener's wife on going away, "or the thief will hear you and not come this way. Keep quiet. You need not fear. The beam will not come down of itself. When the thief is coming I will let you down, and then you can catch him."

Within half an hour Shabrang (the gardener's wife!) was sleeping in his bed. Within half an hour, also, there being no sign of a second visit from the thief that night, the deputy-inspector asked to be let down. But he received no answer.

"Oh, let me down!" he shouted, thinking that the gardener's wife had fallen asleep; "let me down, for the thief is not coming here again to-night. Let me down; the wind is blowing cold. What am I doing here, while the thief is probably stealing in another place?" Still no answer.

Then he shouted again, and threatened the gardener's wife with heavy punishment, pretending that he knew her name and her house. But still there was no reply.

"Alas!" he cried at last, "what trickery is this? The wife of the gardener can be no other than the thief, and the blackguard has fastened me up here!"