Still thinking no evil, Surya Bai went with her.
Now the bathing tank was very deep; it was only for people to swim in. When they came near the edge, the old Ranee leaned over and Surya Bai leaned over, too, to look in the water. Then the old Ranee gave her a push so that she fell in and sank out of sight below the waters.
The wicked old Ranee waited for awhile, and then, as she saw nothing more of Surya Bai, she was satisfied that the girl was drowned, and she hurried back to her chamber and hid all the jewels.
That night the Rajah could not find Surya Bai anywhere. No one knew what had become of her. The Rajah was like one distracted. He hunted for her everywhere.
Then his mother said to him, “I saw her walking in the garden this morning with that old woman. If any harm has come to her, it is because of that wretch; I feel sure of it.”
The Rajah at once sent for the old woman and questioned her, but she could tell him nothing about the young Ranee, for she had not seen her after she left her there in the garden with the Rajah’s mother. The old Ranee managed to make the Rajah feel very suspicious of the old woman, so he had her thrown into prison, and she lay there, very miserable.
But Surya Bai had not been altogether drowned when she sank down into the tank. Instead she had changed into a beautiful golden flower that rose up and up through the waters until it reached the air.
The next time the Rajah came to the gardens he saw something shining over in the bathing tank, and when he went nearer he found a beautiful golden flower growing up out of the water. Then at once he became quite happy. The flower made him think of little Surya Bai, and a load seemed lifted from his heart. Now every day he went out to the tank and spent long hours looking at the flower, and he talked to it as though it could hear him, and it never changed or withered.
But soon the old Ranee became very anxious. “This flower certainly has something to do with Surya Bai. There is some magic about it,” she said to herself.
So one night she took several men with her and went secretly out to where the flower was blooming, and made the men cut it down and take it away into the jungle and burn it.