"Have you gone mad?" Vasant Rao turned and glared at him as he spat the words in disgust. "Why not try to die with dignity."
"Tell him."
Vasant Rao stared at Hawksworth in dumb amazement. "Do you think we're all fools. The eclipse is foretold in the Panjika. It is the sacred book of the Brahmins. It's used to pick auspicious days for ceremonies, for weddings, for planting crops. Eclipses are predicted many years ahead in the Panjika. They have been forecast in India for centuries. Don't Europeans know an eclipse is a meeting of the sun and moon? Nothing can change that."
"Tell him what I said. Exactly."
Vasant Rao hesitated for a few moments and then reluctantly translated. The Rajput chieftain's face did not change and his reply was curt.
Vasant Rao turned to Hawksworth. "He says you are a fool as well as an Untouchable."
"Tell him that if I am to die with the sun, he must kill me now. I spit on his Brahmins and their Panjika. I say the eclipse will be this very day. In less than three hours."
"In one pahar?
"Yes."
"No god, and certainly no man, can control such things. Why tell him this invention?" Vasant Rao's voice rose with his anger. "When this thing does not happen, you will die in even greater dishonor."