BENGAL DACOITS AND TIGERS
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 her husband forth. But no words of hers could move him. "Why should all suffer for one?" he argued. She returned sadly to her husband.
Presently the cries of the dacoits showed that they had scented their quarry. Soon they shouted at the door: "Open! or drive out the Deputy Magistrate. We know he is here. Give him to us or what happens be on your own head."
The wife wept piteously. Her father remained obdurate, muttering, "I knew this would happen."
The unfortunate Magistrate could not understand his father-in-law's behaviour. He sat with his head bowed in despair. Suddenly his wife ran to him.
"You must try to escape. I have an idea." She pulled out a saree and some jewels, and began to dress him as a woman.
"It's no use," he said hopelessly, "they will catch me."
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