On a swell of ground, in the wild country extending from Bombay to the foot of the Ghauts, stood a small camp.

In the centre was a large pavilion; the residence, for the time, of Major Lindsay, an officer whose charge was to keep the peace in the district.

It was no easy matter.

The inhabitants, wild and lawless, lived in small villages scattered about the rough country, for the most part covered with forest, and subject to depredations by the robber bands who had their strongholds among the hills.

Major Lindsay had with him a party of twenty troopers, not for defence--there was little fear of attack by the natives of the Concan--but to add to his authority, to aid in the collection of the small tax paid by each community, and to deter the mountain robbers from descending on to the plain.