The gentle-faced schoolmaster apologised again. There could be no doubt, at any rate, he said almost pathetically, that the uneducated mind was, as the poet said, liable to be tickled by straws, and so he conceived it to be his duty to draw the attention of the 'Society for Promoting the General Good of People' to this paper, which, he might add, he was going to pillory in his publication with scathing criticism. So, drawing a slip from his pocket, he began to read in the vernacular--
'I, Kali, will come. In my dark month I will come for blood. Woe to them who seek to stay me in the city, since I will have blood on my altar whether the hands of strange men stay Me, or smite Me. For I am Kali the Death-Mother of all men, whether they will it or no. Yea! I will come.'
The vague phrases, besprinkled with hollow-sounding mysterious Sanskrit words, brought a curious hush even to that assemblage, till Hâfiz Ahmad laughed arrogantly.
'Is that all, pandit-jee?' he asked; 'that bogey will do little.'
'As much, I venture to suggest,' put in Râm Nâth suavely, 'as the bogey of supposed invasion of domestic privacy for women.'
The Mohammedan, though he professed himself above such considerations, frowned. 'I demur. The caste prejudices will, in my opinion, be more difficult to place on common-sense footings.'
They had embarked on the fencing-match which, as often as not, ended discussion between these two recognised leaders of the two communities, Hindoo and Mohammedan, and the attention of the meeting had wandered after them, when a new voice brought it back. It was Chris Davenant's. Taller than most there, fairer, and of better birth than the generality of those who brave the dangers of foreign travel, he was the show man of young Nushapore for pure culture, as Râm Nâth was for ability; and as such he commanded attention.
'Gentlemen!' he said, 'it seems to me that this paper, which pandit Narain Das has just read, will give our society an opportunity for practical work. It means nothing, or at most little, to any of us here. But none will deny it will mean much to many; to our friends--let us face the facts!--to our own families. And it is a dangerous paper, gentlemen! None know that better than we, who have passed from the influence of such words,'--here that faint desultory clapping became audible--'and it is just because we have so passed, that I ask this meeting what it is prepared to do in order to combat the possible, the probable effect of these mysterious threats?'
'Hear! hear!' came several voices. And then came silence; until the pandit said, in hurt tones--
'I have already told this meeting that I will publish in my monthly magazine, together with criticisms of the most scathing character----'