embankment I saw that the party consisted of two covered bullock-carts and five or six men on foot. They were evidently going towards the railway-station.
I felt that I ought to keep out of their sight, for, however intelligent they might be, if they saw me standing alone there, like a veritable ghost, at that hour of the night, they would at least make a terrible uproar, if nothing more.
I came back and stood in my original place. A few minutes later the little company passed by along the embankment just above me. I thought at first that I had been detected, for one of the foremost men stood looking towards me for several seconds and then spoke to someone in the first bullock-cart, but they proceeded almost immediately and were soon lost to sight behind a bushy tree. Feeling that the night was almost over, I was making up my mind to return when a loud voice came from behind the tree. 'Srikanta Babu!'
'Hallo,' I cried. 'Is that Ratan?'
'Yes, sir. Please come this way, sir.'
Quickly mounting the embankment, I asked, 'Ratan, are you going home?'
'Yes, sir,' he answered, 'we're going home: and Mother is in the first cart.'
As I approached the cart, Piari looked out through the curtains and said, 'I knew that it could not be anybody else as soon as the durwan[1] described what he saw. Come up into the cart; I have something to tell you'.
'What is it?' I asked, going nearer.
- ↑ Doorkeeper. Of course, all her servants travelled with her.
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