"How far is the town from here?"

"About five miles. The road in front goes straight east to the town."

Just then, Himangshu came out of the house. He said, smiling at us, "Come, Byomkesh and Ajitbabu, let me show you my armoury!"

We followed him eagerly. It was evening — Dewanji went off quickly to prepare for his evening prayers.

Himangshu took us to a middle-sized room. On a table at the centre of the room, a light shone. We noticed that the floor was covered with the skins of tigers, bears and deer. There were some almirahs on the wall. Himangshu opened them one by one, and showed us different types of guns, pistols, revolvers and rifles. We were a little surprised to see this man's great affection for all those terrible weapons. He described the quality of each, and even recalled which was used to kill what animal. He said that he never allowed anyone to touch these; he cleaned and oiled them himself.

After seeing the arms, we sat there in the room, and started chatting. We talked about many subjects. People reveal their characters in different ways, in different environments. The relaxed atmosphere of the room helped Himangshu to unravel himself. I was quite certain that this man was a simple person, and that his mind went in a straight direction like the bullet of his gun.

We unwittingly began talking about estates, and the problems in managing these. Himangshu told us a lot about himself and about the estate he ran. He told us frankly that he was bitter about the constant clash with his subjects. The earnings were virtually nil — court cases were costly. So in these last few years the debts were running into lakhs. I noticed that this bitterness had made him turn away from property matters. He was not very sure of the impending dangers because he was inexperienced about money matters, but he was vaguely aware of some unknown catastrophe in the near future. To divert his mind from this fear, he plunged himself into his favourite sport — hunting. Such was the present situation.

It was eight thirty in the evening; we were called for dinner. Now we saw Anadi Sarkar. He had come to call us. His eyes had a restive and anxious expression — as if he was afraid of being caught for a misdeed.

Byomkesh observed him with sharp eyes. Then we followed him to the dining room. After dinner, we were escorted to our room by Bhuban — Himangshu's personal bearer. We relaxed on chairs and lit cigarettes. Bhuban put up the mosquito curtains, placed a jug of water on the table, and was about to leave, when Byomkesh asked, "You had seen Harinath for the last six months, did he always wear his spectacles?"

Bhuban probably knew that we had come to investigate the theft — so he was very eager to speak.

"Yes, sir, he wore it all the time. One day he was going for his bath without it and he tripped and fell. He could not walk a step without his glasses."

Byomkesh said, "How many pairs of shoes did he have?"

Bhuban smiled and said, "How many — only one, Sir — that also the master had given him. The one which he had worn to this house was so torn that even a dog would not chew it. We threw away that pair into the dustbin, that very day."

"Really? Did he bring the picture of goddess Kali with him?"

"No, Sir, — he did not bring even a toothpick with him. He brought that picture from Dewanji, and hung it on his wall."

Byomkesh said, "All right, thank you."

Bhuban said, "Do you want anything else, Sir?"

"No, but can you bring me an almanac?"

Bhuban was surprised, 'Do you want it now, Sir?'

"Yes — if it is possible."

"I will bring one, Sir."

We were smoking silently while waiting for Bhuban to return, when suddenly, very close by, foxes began howling continuously. Probably five or six foxes had collected together nearby. We got over our initial shock.

Bhuban returned with the almanac. I said, "Are foxes allowed to come so close to the house?"

Bhuban controlled his smile and said, "Those are not real foxes. Babydidi was insisting that Dewanji should imitate the call of foxes. He is making that sound."

I remembered, "Yes, yes, Baby was asking Dewanji this evening. This is a great talent — it is difficult to make out that it is false."

Bhuban said, "Yes, Sir, Dewanji can imitate the calls of all the animals very well." He kept the almanac on the table, next to Byomkesh. I glanced at Byomkesh and found him sitting motionless like a statue. His eyes were staring fixedly, his muscles were taut — I asked in surprise "What's the matter?"

Byomkesh woke up from his trance and said, "Nothing — so this is the almanac. Alright Bhuban — you may go now."

Then Byomkesh began turning the pages of the book and stopped at a certain page; he pushed the book towards me and said, "Look at this" — his voice was trembling with excitement. I looked at the page to find out that the night Harinath vanished had been a new moon night.

We got up at seven the next morning and found that the whole house was asleep. We learnt from a servant who was sweeping the verandah, that no one stirred before eight thirty on a winter morning.

How were we to spend this hour and a half? The sun was not out properly — there was a hint of a mist. I was restless. I told Byomkesh, "Let's go out into the forest, and shoot a few birds — we have nothing to do now — we'll come back by the time these people get up."

I had just learnt to shoot, so I was very enthusiastic. Moreover, Kumar