All the way across the fields to the village, Biff was brimming with excitement because they had met Barma Shah, the secret agent mentioned by Diwan Chand, and the all-important contact to Biff's father. But Biff's enthusiasm was marred by disappointment.
"If I'd only told him who I was!" he exclaimed. "All the while I was driving the jeep, I was holding back on that, thinking that to say anything to anybody might be giving ourselves away."
"Barma Shah is very smart," reminded Chandra. "Perhaps he knew who you were."
"What makes you think that, Chandra?"
"We kept seeing jeep over and over. It went past us—we went past it—as if it was keeping watch on us."
"But that was due to all the traffic—"
"Traffic did not hold us up after Sahib Shah let you drive his jeep.
Next thing, we were practically here at Supari."
"You may be right, Chandra," Biff agreed.
They had reached the actual village now, a mass of closely built huts with mud walls and tiled roofs, surrounded by yapping, nondescript dogs. It was almost sundown, and from this central point, the fields and trees looked dark and gaunt against the spreading purple of the sky. Now people, mostly in native costumes, were flocking out, first in alarm, then in a wild welcome when they recognized Chandra.
Biff and Kamuka were included in the villagers' enthusiasm, and then Chandra's uncle, the patwari, was greeting them and introducing them, in turn, to the patel, or head man of the village. The boys were supplied with cups of rich, delicious milk, and later they were taken to a modern building that served as school and community house, a symbol of the new India.