Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/29

Rh the driver you have not the cattle, and if cattle is found you don't find the driver."

K. "You need not fear, I shall walk all the way." But she thought at heart, "If I can't, what harm? I shall die on the road, but these two will, at any rate, be saved."

The next morning the husband and the wife put their house under lock and key, let the cattle loose, provided themselves with some cash, took the child in their arms, and started for the capital. When they were about to start, Mahendra said: "The road is hard and robbers are prowling about everywhere, we should not go without arms." So saying he went back into the house and returned with a gun and some powder and shot.

Seeing this, Kalyani said, "Since you remind me of arms, will you just hold Sukumari awhile and let me too fetch mine?" So saying she gave the child to Mahendra and entered the house, Mahendra observing, "What arms are you going to have?"

Kalyani got some poison in a pill-box and hid it under her garments. She had taken care to provide herself with it before this, not knowing what might happen to her at a time like that.

It was the month of Jaistha (May–June). The sun was furious, and the earth like a furnace. The wind spread fire all round, the sky looked like a canopy of heated copper and the grains of street dust were like sparks of fire. Kalyani perspired horribly; she sat down to rest now under the babla and now under the date-palm