Meanwhile, in Vaidyabati, a police sergeant, some constables, and an inspector, were hurrying Thakchacha, his arms tied behind his back, away to prison. A great crowd had collected in the streets. One man said, quoting an old proverb:— “As the deed, so the fruit.” Another man exclaimed:— “We shall never have any peace until the wretch is put on boardship and transported.” While another remarked:— “My only fear is that he may after all get off, and become as mischievous as ever.”
As, with head bent low, beard fluttering in the breeze, and eyes glaring, Thakchacha was going along with the police, he quietly offered the sergeant half a rupee to loose his bonds: the sergeant had a capacious paunch, and at once tossed the half rupee away in contempt. Thakchacha then . said to him: “Take me for a short time to Mati Babu: get him to give bail: let me go for a day only, I will put an appearance to-morrow.” The sergeant only replied: “You jabbering idiot: you will get a smack on the face, if you speak to me again.” Thakchacha then folded his hands in humble supplication before the sergeant, and begged and prayed to be let off. The sergeant refused to listen to him, and put him into a boat; About four o’clock in the afternoon he arrived with him at the police court; but as the police magistrate had left the court by that time, Thakchacha had to spend the night in the lock-up.
Matilall, when he heard of the evil plight of Thakchacha, became very anxious for himself. He dreaded the fall of the thunderbolt in his direction. Thakchacha having been caught, his turn he thought was safe to come next: the whole affair, he imagined, was connected with John Company, but anyhow extreme caution on his part was necessary. Acting upon this determination, he fastened the main door of the house very securely. Ramgovinda said to him: “Thakchacha has been apprehended, sir, on a charge of forgery: if there had been a warrant out against you, your house would have been surrounded long ago: why entertain such causeless alarm?” Matilall replied. “Ah! none of you understand: unluckily for me misfortunes are cropping up all round me: as the old proverb has it, ‘The burnt shal fish has slipped out of my hands.’ If I can only get through to-day somehow or other, I will go off the first thing to-morrow to my estates in the Jessore district. It is not safe for me to remain at home any longer: I am encompassed with portents, obstacles, fears, and misfortunes of every kind, and besides all this my money is all gone, my hand is mere dust.”
Just as he had finished speaking, there was a loud knocking at the door, and somebody shouted out: “Open the door, friend! Ho there! Is there anybody there?” Matilall said very quietly: “Hush! just what I expected has happened.” Mangovinda peeped out from above, and saw a messenger pushing away at the door: he went quietly to Matilall and said to him: “It is high time for you to be off, sir! you had better get away at once; I rather fancy that a second warrant has come in connection with Thakchacha’s case. Who can foresee the end of a spark of fire? If you can find no other deserted spot, go and get into the dirty tank at the back door, and stand like a pillar in the middle, as did King Durjyodhan.” Dolgovinda said: “Why anticipate evil? why swamp the boat at the first sight of waves? Find out the true state of affairs first: if you wait a second I will make enquiries.” Saying this, he called out: “Ho there! you messenger! from what court have you come?” The messenger replied, “Sir, I have brought a letter from Mr. John,” and saying, “Here, take the letter!” he threw it up to them. They all shouted “Aha! we are saved! we breathe again!” Then Haladhar and Gadadhar, who were behind the others, caught up the refrain:— “Protect us, O Lord, in this world.” The news to the young Babus was like an autumn cloud: it was rain, it was sun, it was warmth, it was joy. Matilall enjoined them to be quiet a little and asked for the letter, telling them that it was possible that some other opportunity for trade might be presenting itself. When he had opened the letter, the young Babus all stooped over him: there were a good many heads collected together, but not an atom of learning amongst the lot of them: reading the letter was a sore trial to them. At last they had a man called from the house of a neighbour of theirs, a Kayasth, and they ascertained the substance of the letter to be that Mr. John was almost starving, and that he was very badly in want of money. Mangovinda remarked:— “What a shameless wretch! So much money already thrown into the deep on his account, and yet he does not leave us alone; I like his impudence!” Dolgovinda said: “It is a very good thing to have an Englishman in our power, for their luck is sure to turn[54]: there are times when a handful of mud in their hands may become a handful of gold.” Matilall said to them: “Why are you chattering like this? You may cut me up and not find any blood in me: you may whittle me away, and get no flesh off me.”
One evening, about this time, Becharam Babu, having crossed over from Bally, was proceeding along in a northerly direction in a gharry. He was singing a song, the refrain of which was—
“Mahadev! thou, by thy great might,”
“Upholdest, all things day and night.”
Bancharam Babu was driving his buggy from a southerly direction: when the two were alongside each other, they both peeped out to see who was passing. As soon as Bancharam caught the outline of Becharam’s figure, he whipped up his horse. Becharam thereupon, holding the door of his gharry tight with his hand, put his head hurriedly out of the window and shouted out: “Ho! Bancharam! Ho Bancharam!” Upon this summons, the buggy was brought to a stop, and the gharry drew up to it with many a creak and a groan. Becharam Babu then said to Bancharam: “Aha, Bancharam! you are indeed a lucky fellow! The vessel of your gains is like Ravan’s funeral pile, ever blazing[55]. At one stroke you have successfully carried out your trade ventures. Your friend and ally, Thakchacha, is now ruined; and I fancy that even out of that circumstance some trifling gain will accrue to you, perhaps the price of a goat’s head. But you have only worked your own future ruin by all your vakeel’s practices and stratagems; Has this thought, that you must die some time or other, never occurred to you?” Bancharam Babu was exceedingly angry at all this: he frowned and bit his moustache in his vexation, and venting his rage on his horse’s back, drove away.