Page:Stories of Bengalee life - Prabhat Kumar Mukerji.pdf/72

60 gentlemen, at a sacrifice of their valuable time and money, were looking after the case and defending the boys in court.

The Khansama stuck to his former statement. In cross-examination the defence pleader asked him whether it was not a fact that his master the Sahib had caused the injury on his forehead by throwing the biscuit-tin at him. The Khansama stoutly denied it, persisting in his statement that the injury was caused by the boys who had slapped and cuffed him on the forehead.

The tea-planter, following in the wake of the "dd natives," emphatically denied having hurled the tin at his servant's head.

Some bazar people spoke to the breaking of the biscuit box in the street and the boys' dancing on the scattered contents of it, but could not identify the accused as having been in the assembly. The Police put in the broken tin rescued from the gutter and an envelope containing dust mixed with powdered biscuits, as "Exhibits" in the case.

The merchant identified the boys and swore that they were among those who came into his shop with the Khansama and insisted on the English tin being taken back and the money refunded. A little while after they had left, he heard many voices shouting Bande Mataram from near