Mr. Y----, completely put out of
temper by the utter ludicrousness of our awkward predicament. "What
should I do? Were I a man in your position and a believer in all you
are brought up to believe, I should take my revolver, and in the first
place, shoot all the vampire bats in the neighborhood, if only to rid
all your late relations from the abject bodies of these creatures,
and, in the second place, I should endeavor to smash the head of the
conceited fraud in the shape of a Brahman who invented all this stupid
story. That is what I should do, sir!"

But this advice did not content the miserable descendant of Rama. No
doubt he would have remained a long time undecided as to what course
of action to adopt, torn as he was between the sacred feelings of
hospitality, the innate fear of the Brahman-priest, and his own
superstitions, if our ingenious Babu had not come to our rescue.
Learning that we all felt more or less indignant at all this row, and
that we were preparing to leave the house as quickly as possible,
he persuaded us to stay, if only for an hour, saying that our hasty
departure would be a terrible outrage upon our host, whom, in any case,
we could not find fault with. As to the stupid old woman, the Babu
promised us to pacify her speedily enough: he had his own plans and
views. In the meantime, he said, we had better go and examine the ruins
of an old fortress close by.

We obeyed very reluctantly, feeling an acute interest in his "plans." We
proceeded slowly. Our gentlemen were visibly out of temper. Miss X----
tried to calm herself by talking more than usual, and Narayan, as
phlegmatic as usual, indolently and good-naturedly chaffed her about
her beloved "spirits." Glancing back we saw the Babu accompanied by the
family priest. Judging by their gestures they were engaged in some warm
discussion. The shaven head of the Brahman nodded right and left, his
yellow garment flapped in the wind, and his arms rose towards the sky,
as if in an appeal to the gods to come down and testify to the truth of
his words.

"I'll bet you a thousand dollars, no plans of our Babu's will be of any
avail with this fanatic!" confidently remarked the colonel as he lit his
pipe.

But we had hardly walked a hundred steps after this remark when we saw
the Babu running after us and signaling us to stop.

"Everything ended first-rate!" screamed he, as soon as we could hear.
"You are to be thanked... You happen to be the true saviour