'I taken ill?' Indra repeated in surprise. 'No, I'm never taken ill—never.' He seemed fired by a sudden enthusiasm and said, 'Look here, Srikanta, I'll teach you something. If you take the names of gods and goddesses morning and evening, they will come and stand before you, and you will see them plainly; and then you will never get ill. No one will be able to touch a hair of your head. You will find that it is so. You can go wherever you like, do what you like, just as I do; and nothing will ever happen to you. Do you understand?'
I nodded and said, 'Yes.' As I threw my baited hook into the water, I asked in a low voice, 'Whom do you take there now?'
'Where?'
'Over there, to catch fish?'
Indra pulled in his line and, putting his rod gently beside him, said, 'I don't go there any more.'
I was much surprised and asked, 'Haven't you been there again a single day?'
'No, not once.' Indra raised his head and tried to say something, but a sudden blush suffused his face and he lowered his head again. He plucked a reed and drawing it to and fro over the water said, 'Srikanta.'
'Yes?'
'Have you—have you got—any money?'
'How much?'
'How much? Say, five rupees?'
'Yes, I have. Will you take it?' I looked at his face in joyful expectation. I had just the amount he
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