Srikanta
angrily, 'It's impossible, sir! You can't have gone at all!' I merely smiled at his anger, for it was only natural. The prince pressed my hand with his and besought me in a voice of entreaty.
'On your honour, Srikanta, tell us what you really saw.'
'On my honour, I say, I saw nothing else.'
'How long were you there?'
'About three hours.'
'Well, if you didn't see anything, did you hear anything?'
'Yes, I heard something.'
In an instant every face brightened, and the crowd closed in around me to hear every word. I told them how a night-bird had passed overhead crying, 'Bap! Bap!', how the young vultures on the simul trees had kept up a plaintive crying like so many sick children, how a sudden gust of wind had risen and I had heard the sighings of the skulls, how at length some mysterious being had breathed icy-cold on my ear. After I had finished no one spoke for some time: there was silence throughout the tent. At length the elderly gentleman heaved a deep sigh, and placing a hand on my shoulder, said with impressive slowness, 'Babu-ji, you have been able to return with your life; that is because you are a true Brahmin; nobody else could have done it. But take an old man's warning, sir; pray do not take such risks again! I touch the feet of your forefathers a thousand million times; it is their spiritual merit that saved you last night.' And in his emotion he put his hand on my feet.
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