‘Very probably, or it wouldn’t be chased so persistently. But mind you, I am no expert.’

‘Well then, is it val-val-val-?’

‘I’m afraid the value of diamonds is something I don’t know much about. I can only make a rough guess. This one, I think, is in the region of twenty carats. So its value would certainly exceed half a million rupees.’

Lalmohan Babu gulped in silence. Feluda was still turning the stone between his fingers.

‘How did Dhameeja get hold of something so precious?’ I asked under my breath.

‘I don’t know, dear boy. All I know about Dhameeja is that he said he had an orchard and that he likes reading thrillers on trains.’

Lalmohan Babu, in the meantime, had recovered somewhat. ‘Will this stone now go back to Dhameeja?’ he asked.

‘If we can be sure that it is indeed his, then certainly it will go back to him.’

‘Does that mean you suspect it might actually belong to someone else?’

‘Yes, but there are other questions that need to be answered. For instance, I don’t know if people outside Bengal are in the habit of chewing chopped betel-nuts.’

‘But if that is so—’ I began.

‘No. No more questions tonight, Topshe. This whole affair has taken another new turn. We have to take every step with extreme caution. I can’t waste any more time chatting.’

Feluda took out his wallet, put the sparkling stone away safely, pulled the zip and climbed on to his berth. I knew he didn’t want to be disturbed. Lalmohan Babu opened his mouth to speak, but I laid a finger against my lips to stop him. He glanced once at Feluda and then turned to me. ‘I think I’ll give up writing suspense thrillers,’ he confided.

‘Why?’

‘The few things that have happened in the last couple of days … they’re beyond one’s imagination, aren’t they? Haven’t you heard the saying, truth is stronger than fiction?’

‘Not stronger. I think the word is stranger.’

‘Stranger?’

‘Yes, meaning more … amazing. More curious.’

‘Oh really? I thought a stranger was someone one hadn’t met before. Oh no, no, I see what you mean. Strange, stranger, strangest …’

I decided to cheer him up. ‘We found the diamond only because of you,’ I told him. ‘If you hadn’t finished all the real betel-nuts, that diamond would have remained hidden forever.’

Lalmohan Babu grinned from ear to ear.

‘You mean to say even I have made a little contribution to this great mystery? Heh, heh, heh, heh …’ Then he thought for a minute and added, ‘You know what I really think? I am sure your cousin knew about the diamond right from the start. Or how could we have survived two attempts to steal it from us?’