After
learning these things, I took my leave, commending Baji Lal and his wife
to the care of the constable, whose promise that nothing would happen to
his prisoners until the patel's return I sealed with a handful of
rupees.
"This matter settled, I strolled back to the pipul tree beside the tank,
thinking that it might be useful to pick up the remarks of the
loiterers. But to my surprise I found virtually the whole village in
assembly, and to my dismay soon gathered that it was their fixed
intention to kill Baji Lal, give to Devaka the privilege of committing
suttee, and then burn down the haunted house whence the accusing sounds
came, making of their own home the funeral pyre of both victims.
"I plucked my beard in my distress; I felt so helpless. If only the
headman was here, together we might have devised something. But alone I
was powerless. Plunged in gloomy forebodings, I did not notice the
approach of the barber, until he touched my sleeve to announce his
presence.
"'You have heard what they mean to do?' he asked.
"I nodded.
"'We must save them, Chunda Das. But I beg of you not to place any
reliance on the patel's coming, for he sides with the rest of the
villagers, and will help them to deal out the swift justice which he
believes to be well deserved.
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