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Srikanta 'Didi be damned,' he cried and dragged me to the hedge.

All this row woke up Shahji. 'What's that? What's that?" he asked, sitting up.

'Rogue and rascal,' cried Indra, leaving hold of me and stepping up to Shahji. 'I'll whip the hide off your back, you swine. "What's that?" indeed! As if he didn't know anything. . . He goes about saying that he can revive corpses by mantras. By Jove, I"ll revive you as you deserve, next time I see you', and he made such a savage gesture that even Shahji was visibly startled.

His brain had evidently not got clear of the ganja fumes; coming on top of that, this strange and unexpected situation was too much for it to grapple with, and he sat bemused and at his wit's end, with an idiotic stare.

When Indra had dragged me outside the enclosure we heard from behind us Shahji shouting in clear Bengali, 'Tell me, Indranath, what is all this?' It was the first time that I had heard him speak Bengali.

Indra turned back, and said, 'You pretend you don't know anything. Will you tell me why you have tricked me so long and taken so much money for nothing?'

'Who says for nothing?' he asked.

Indra pointed at Didi who was sitting silent with bent head, and said, 'She has told us that you know nothing of the black art. What you do know is to fool other people and cheat them of their money. That appears to be your trade, swindling liars!'

Shahji's eyes blazed with fury. I had not known till then what a terrible man he was, but the sight of those