boatmen were cooking their evening meal,
while others sat about on the decks smoking and singing. Many of the
boats were wedged close together and drawn up on to the bank.

But one lay well in the water and some distance from its
fellow-craft. Its manjhi (headman) stood on the stern deck, binding
together the mat roof of his boat. His seemingly careless gaze took
in the Brahman, about to descend the bank. He noted that the old man
carried a parcel, partially concealed in his chadar (scarf), and,
from the manner in which he hugged it, the observer concluded it
contained something valuable. As the Brahman came nearer, the manjhi
saw it was a bag of money.

The old man picked his way down the bank and called upon boat after
boat to take him to a small village near Serampore, for in those days
there was no railway. None were willing to go so far. Meanwhile a
whispered consultation had taken place between the manjhi and dhars
(oarsmen) of the furthest dinghi. When the Brahman finally accosted
them, they first demurred and then, as though still reluctant,
consented to hire their boat.

Just as they were pushing off, a man with a performing bear ran down
the bank. "Where goest thou?" he asked.

"Serampore" answered the Brahman before the boatman could reply.

"My home is near by," the man remarked gladly, and jumped into the
boat, pulling his bear after him.

The boatmen scowled angrily: "Get out, we go not so far." But he
would not. The manjhi warned him that he and his bear would gain
nothing by forcing themselves into the boat.

"These boatmen are queer customers," he laughingly remarked to the
Brahman, and to them: "Gain nothing! Why! I will reach my home."

"So you say," they answered.

The bear-man wondered within himself at their unwillingness to have
him as a passenger. He and the old Brahman made a few remarks to each
other. Then they fell silent.

They were near the end of their journey when the bear-man asked
suddenly: "Manjhi, have we not passed Serampore?"

"Are you the guru of boatmen that you question me?" replied the
manjhi, and then, in a more conciliatory tone, added: "We are going
higher up for a crossing. The tide is strong." The explanation was
reasonable. But the bear-man's suspicions had been awakened and he
was on the alert. The Brahman sat placidly nursing his bag which the
bear-man too had noticed contained money. He had also noticed that
the manjhis kept glancing furtively at it and its