‘Why do you say it’s midnight when it’s not?’ I had to ask.

‘Oh, I said that only because ... because midnight has a special ... er ... something, doesn’t it?’

‘What something?’

‘Midnight in the graveyard, you see? That’s special. I read it somewhere.’

‘You mean that’s when spooks come out?’

Instead of making a reply, Lalmohan Babu made a funny sound that ended in a hiss. A faint noise by my side told me that Feluda had struck a match, but had kept the flame hidden behind his hand. Then he lit a cigarette, inhaled and blew some smoke out, without removing his hand.

The clouds were getting thicker. The sound of traffic had stopped completely. The wind, too, was silent. Every noise, every sound had vanished. The crickets and the frogs had gone to sleep. My body felt cold, my throat was parched. I tried licking my lips, but they remained dry.

An owl hooted loudly. Lalmohan Babu promptly clapped his hands over his ears. Slowly, Feluda rose to his feet.

A car had stopped somewhere close by. It was impossible to tell exactly where it might be parked, but my instinct told me that the sound had come not from Park Street, but from Rawdon Street to the west. There was no gate facing Rawdon Street. There was only the compound wall, with pieces of broken glass fixed to its edge. I heard a car door slam.

Our eyes remained glued to the gate. Lalmohan Babu opened his mouth to speak, but Feluda stretched out an arm and gave his shoulder a light squeeze to stop him. No one came through the gate.

Perhaps there was some perfectly reasonable explanation why the car had suddenly arrived in the middle of the night. There were so many houses and residential apartments in the area. Perhaps someone had simply returned home after a late night show. I hoped fervently that that was the case. Then we need not worry about the car at all.

Feluda, however, was standing straight, his tense back flattened against the wall. Facing him was a pillar. Everything was pitch dark. No one could see us. But how were we going to see them? If they were here?

A minute later, I realized that there was no need to see anything. We did not have to use our eyes. Our ears told us what was happening.

Thud ... thud ... thud ... thud!

Someone was digging the ground. The sound continued for some time. We listened with bated breath.

Thud ... thud ...!

It stopped. Now we could see a light. Through the gap between two distant obelisks, a dim light had travelled and fallen on the grass. It was not still, but moving, swaying, playing on the grass. It was clearly coming from a torch.

Suddenly, it disappeared.

‘They climbed over the wall!’ Feluda spoke through clenched teeth. ‘I’ll follow them!’ he added. He was now waiting to hear the car restart.