aji Lal was questioned, he said that the servant had
returned during the night with saddle and pack horses, and that, after
conferring with Sheikh Ahmed, had gathered together his master's
belongings, and announced their immediate departure. Baji Lal had tried
to persuade his guest to wait until daylight, but this advice was
unheeded. The Sheikh promised, however, that he would come again to the
village when he passed that way on his homeward journey.

"'At this time Baji Lal's story seemed a perfectly natural one, and the
people only regretted that they had not had the opportunity of bidding
the Sheikh farewell. Still the prospect of soon seeing him again
softened this regretful feeling.

"'And now began the change in our friends. Baji Lal ceased to come to
our village meetings, and Devaka shunned every woman, even her most
intimate friends. For a while this strange behaviour did not attract
special attention, although noted and commented on afterwards. For just
a few days after Sheikh Ahmed had gone away the monsoon had burst, and
the stormy weather would account for Baji Lal and his wife remaining
much at home. But as time wore on, and their furtive ways grew more and
more pronounced, people began to talk, and from talking they took to
watching and spying. For, believe me, there is nothing so all-absorbing
as for once respected and well-thought-of people to be under a cloud. We
allow our imaginations to run riot, and our tongues do not rust for want
of wagging.

"'Thus suspicion gradually filled the air, and it was whispered that
Baji Lal and Devaka had murdered their guest for his money, and had
merely invented the story of his midnight departure to hide their
crime. Children who once used to run to them shrank back, or were called
away by their parents.

"'But, most extraordinary thing of all, and one that brought convincing
confirmation to what had at first been mere suspicion, at night there
could be heard heartbreaking cries and sobs coming from the house of
Baji Lal. The voice was not his, nor that of his wife; it was, in all
truth, the wail of a spirit, plaintive at times, then angry as if
shrieking aloud for vengeance. For I myself have heard these sounds with
mine own ears; twice in the darkness of the night I mustered courage to
steal forth as far as the hedge that hides the house from the roadway,
and, although the monsoon winds were still boisterous, above all other
noises again and again arose that w