Chapters (16)
A whole minute passed. Then another. And another.
‘Strange!’ remarked Feluda.
There was no noise, either from Rawdon Street or Park Street. The car that had arrived was still parked at the same spot. What was going on?
Two more minutes passed. The clouds parted again. The moon reappeared. No one was in sight.
‘Hold this, Topshe!’ Feluda passed me his shoulder bag and stepped onto the grass. Then he began moving in the direction where we had seen the torchlight. There was no reason to worry about him—he had his Colt .32 in his pocket. Very soon, it was going to roar and shatter the silence of this cemetery.
But ... Feluda was still limping. One of his boots was clearly bothering him. The limp was slight, but it was there. God knows why he had to try and repair his boot himself.
We waited. Where was the roar from Feluda’s revolver? The silence continued.
‘Mistake!’ Lalmohan Babu spoke hoarsely. ‘Your cousin made an awful mistake!’
I hissed like a snake to stop him from speaking further. Feluda had disappeared in the dark. I simply could not tell what was going on behind all those tombstones. What was that? A noise of some kind? No, I must have imagined it.
A clock struck the hour. Midnight. Where could the clock be? St Paul’s? The wind was coming from that direction. Sometimes, if the wind blew from the west, from our house in Ballygunj we could hear lions roar in the Alipore zoo.
Oh. There was a car starting.
Another door slammed. Then it revved its engine, and drove off.
We could wait no longer. I wasn’t afraid, but I certainly felt anxious.
The two of us got to our feet. Lalmohan Babu was muttering something, but I decided not to pay him any attention. There was no time for that.
We began walking as fast as we could, feeling our way through the tombstones. We passed one that said ‘Mary Ellis’. Lalmohan Babu was clutching the back of my shirt. The grass under our feet was still wet, still cold.
The next plaque I could see said ‘John Martin’. Then came Cynthia Collette. Captain Evans. That was followed by an obelisk. On a black marble plaque ...
Crunch!
I had stepped on something. I removed my foot and looked down. The moon had come out again. I picked up the object.
It was a packet of Charminar, and it wasn’t empty. There were quite a few cigarettes left in it. Each had been squashed.
Feluda!
I cannot tell what happened next. All I remember is a slight pressure on my mouth, and a smothered scream from Lalmohan Babu.
