Page:The Wreck.djvu/236

232

THE WRECK

up courage and marched up to the front door of An- nada Babu's house. All the doors and windows were shut and barred, and there were no signs of human occupancy. It occurred to him that the bearer Sukhan might have been left behind to guard the empty house, and he knocked at the door several times and called to the bearer, but there was no response. A neighbour, Chandra Mohan, who was sitting in his porch smoking a hookah, now hailed him : "Hallo, Ramesh Babu, is that really you? How are you? None of Annada Babu's people are at home."

"Do you happen to know where they've gone, sir?" asked Ramesh.

Chandra Mohan. "I can't say. They're gone some- where up-country, that's all I know."

Ramesh. "Which of them went there?"

Chandra. "Annada Babu and his daughter."

Ramesh. "Do you know for certain that no one else went with them?"

Chandra. "Yes, I'm quite sure of that; I saw them start"

Ramesh could contain himself no longer.

"Some one told me," he proceeded, "that a gentle- man called Nalin Babu accompanied them."

Chandra. "Your informant was wrong. Nalin Babu stayed for some time in your old lodgings there, but he started for Benares several days before Annada Babu left Calcutta."

Ramesh then proceeded to draw out Chandra Mohan on the subject of this Nalin Babu, and was informed that his full name was Nalinaksha Chattopadhyay ; he was supposed to have had a practice in Rangpur but was now living with his mother in Benares.

After a short pause Ramesh asked if Chandra Mohan knew where Jogen was at the moment. He was told that Jogendra had gone to a place called Bisa-

Digitized by Google