Many were crowding into first- and second-class compartments, only to be pushed out and ordered back to where they belonged, in third class. Amid the commotion, Chandra found one third-class compartment that looked full, but wasn't, because the occupants had simply spread their luggage in a haphazard way. Chandra began piling them together like so many bundles of wash, until he had made room for all three boys, including their own luggage.
The seats in the compartment were little better than benches, but Biff gladly drew himself into the deepest and most uncomfortable corner, rather than be observed too closely when members of the train crew closed the doors, for some of them were genuine Sikhs who might have seen through his thin disguise.
The platforms were still crowded when the train pulled out—as many people had come to the station simply to see the others off. Then the train was rolling into the open country, what little Biff could see of it. The rattle of wheels mixed with swirls of dust and blended with the smell of garlic and spices, for everyone was bringing out native food, bowls of rice, bananas, and other fruit. Biff's appetite was suddenly roused.
"Think of all that rice Jinnah Jad wasted," Biff said to Kamuka, "when he did that trick! I could eat some of it now."
"He didn't waste it," reminded Kamuka. "He put it in our pockets, remember? We should have kept it."
"Say, that was a neat trick." Biff turned to Chandra. "How did Jinnah
Jad work that part of it? Or don't you know?"
Chandra grinned broadly.
"That is one trick I do know," he declared. "Remember when I went through the crowd, tapping people's pockets, asking for rupees, like this?" He tapped Biff's pocket, then Kamuka's, and they both nodded. "While I do that," Chandra went on, "I use my other hand to put rice in other pockets. So later, the people find it there."
"So that was it!" Almost instinctively, Biff thrust his hand in his other pocket, then brought it out in amazement, with a pair of candy bars. Kamuka, reaching into his own pocket, found himself staring at a handful of loose peanuts.
"You must have bought these when you went for the tickets," said Biff to Chandra, "and then you slipped them into our pockets while you were telling us how you did it! Candy for me—peanuts for Kamuka—"