Feluda rose to his feet. ‘Thank you, Mr Biswas, that will be all. There’s just one thing, though, that I think is most regrettable.’

‘What is it?’

‘In future, if you work in a library, please do not tear or cut anything out of an old book or magazine. That’s my only request. Goodbye.’

We left the room. Mr Biswas could not bring himself to look anyone in the eye.

From Naren Biswas, we went to Feluda’s friend, Suhrid Sengupta’s house in Beni Nandan Street. His servant handed a huge tome to Feluda. It was the special centenary issue of the Presidency College magazine. On the way to Bourne & Shepherd, Feluda went through the magazine very carefully and, for some reason I failed to fathom, said, ‘Just imagine!’ at least three times.

It took Feluda only ten minutes to finish his business at Bourne & Shepherd. He came out carrying a large red envelope. Obviously, it contained an enlarged photograph, or perhaps there was more than one photo in it.

‘Whose photo is that?’ Lalmohan Babu asked.

‘Mutiny,’ Feluda replied. Lalmohan Babu and I exchanged glances. Feluda’s reply clearly meant that the photo—or photos—were not meant for the public.

‘Let’s go to the cemetery,’ Feluda said, ‘but you two don’t have to go in with me. I’ll just check if everything is all right.’

Lalmohan Babu’s driver parked the car in front of the cemetery. As Feluda passed through its gate, I saw the chowkidar, Baramdeo, give him a smart salute.

Feluda returned in a few minutes and got back into the car. ‘Okay,’ he said. It was decided then that we would go back to the cemetery that night, at half-past ten.

Something told me that we were very close to the final act in our play.

Chapter 11

Feluda and I had travelled to so many different places trying to solve mysteries—Sikkim, Lucknow, Rajasthan, Simla, Varanasi—and had had plenty of adventures everywhere. But I had no idea that this time, we would get involved in such a bloodcurdling experience without even stepping out of Calcutta.

Lalmohan Babu called the final day a ‘black-letter day’, but changed it later to ‘a black-letter night’. I had to agree, when he asked me, that we had never been in such a fix before.