The subinspector saluted dramatically.

‘Wait, wait. Do not leave things half done. Enter in your police diary words to the effect that Ram Lal’s murderers have not yet been traced but that information about them is expected soon. Didn’t you say Jugga has something to do with it?’

‘Yes, sir. The dacoits threw glass bangles in his courtyard before leaving. Apparently he had refused to join them in their venture.’

‘Well, get the names out of him quickly. Beat him if necessary.’

The subinspector smiled. ‘I will get the names of the dacoits out of him in twenty-four hours and without any beating.’

‘Yes, yes, get them in any way you like,’ answered Hukum Chand impatiently. ‘Also, enter today’s two arrests on separate pages of the police station diary with other items in between. Do not let there be any more bungling.’

The subinspector saluted again.

‘I will take good care, sir.’

Iqbal and Jugga were taken to Chundunnugger police station in a tonga. Iqbal was given the place of honour in the middle of the front seat. The driver perched himself on the wooden shaft alongside the horse’s flank, leaving his seat empty. Juggut Singh sat on the rear seat between two policemen. It was a long and dusty drive on an unmetalled road which ran parallel to the railway track. The only person at ease was Jugga. He knew the policemen and they knew him. Nor was the situation unfamiliar to him.

‘You must have many prisoners in the police station these days,’ he stated.

‘No, not one,’ answered one of the constables. ‘We do not arrest rioters. We only disperse them. And there is no time to deal with other crimes. Yours are the first arrests we have made in the last seven days. Both cells are vacant. You can have one all to yourself.’

‘Babuji will like that,’ Jugga said. ‘Won’t you, Babuji?’

Iqbal did not answer. Jugga felt slightly snubbed, and tried to change the subject quickly.

‘You must have a lot of work to do with this Hindustan-Pakistan business going on,’ he remarked to the constable.

‘Yes. There is all this killing and the police force has been reduced to less than half.’

‘Why, have they joined up with Pakistan?’

‘We do not know whether they have joined up on the other side—they kept protesting that they did not want to go at all. On the day of independence, the Superintendent Sahib disarmed all Muslim policemen and they fled. Their intentions were evil. Muslims are like that. You can never trust them.’

‘Yes,’ added another policeman, ‘it was the Muslim police taking sides which made the difference in the riots. Hindu boys of Lahore would have given the Muslims hell if it had not been for their police. They did a lot of zulum.’

‘Their army is like that, too. Baluch soldiers have been shooting people whenever they were sure there was no chance of running into Sikh or Gurkha troops.’