It was Thursday. We had spent the previous morning with the Four Greedy People. Things were now getting exciting, which was probably why Lalmohan Babu had turned up at 8.30 today instead of 9 a.m. ‘Have you seen today’s papers?’ Feluda asked him as soon as he came in. ‘I’m afraid not. A Kashmiri shawl-walla arrived early this morning and took such a lot of time that I never got the chance. Why, what do the papers say?’ ‘Tiwari opened his chest, and discovered it was empty.’ ‘Wha-at! You mean young Nayan was right, after all? When was the money stolen?’ ‘Between two-thirty and three one afternoon. At least, that’s what Mr Tiwari thinks. He was in his dentist’s chamber during that time. His memory is now working perfectly. Apparently, he had opened the chest two days before the theft and found everything intact. The money was indeed in excess of five lakhs. Tiwari suspects his partner, naturally, since no one else knew the combination.’ ‘Who is his partner?’ ‘A man called Hingorani. The “H” in T H Syndicate stands for Hingorani.’ ‘I see. But to tell you the truth, I’m not in the least interested in Tiwari or his partner. What amazes me is the power that little boy has got.’ ‘I have been thinking about that myself. I’d love to find out how it all started. Topshe, do you remember where Nayan’s father lives?’ ‘Nikunjabihari Lane. Kalighat.’ ‘Good.’ ‘Would you like to go there? We might give it a try—my driver is familiar with most alleyways of Calcutta.’ As it turned out, Lalmohan Babu’s driver did know where Nikunjabihari Lane was. We reached there in ten minutes. A local paanwalla showed us Nayan’s house. A rather thin gentleman opened the door. Judging by the towel he was still clutching in his hand, he had just finished shaving. ‘We are sorry to disturb you so early,’ Feluda said pleasantly. ‘Were you about to leave for your office? May we talk to you for a minute?’ ‘Yes, of course. I don’t have to leave for another half an hour. Please come in.’ We walked into a room that acted as both a living room and a bedroom. There was no furniture except two chairs and a narrow bed. A rolled-up mattress lay on it. ‘Let me introduce myself. I am Pradosh Mitter, and this is my cousin, Tapesh, and my friend Lalmohan Ganguli. We came to find out more about Nayan. You see, we’ve come to know him and Tarafdar recently. What a remarkable gift your child has been blessed with!’

Nayan’s father stared at Feluda, open awe in his eyes. ‘You mean you are the Pradosh Mitter, the investigator? Your pet name is Felu?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh, it is such a privilege to meet you, sir! I am Ashim Sarkar. What would you like to know about Nayan?’ ‘I am curious about one thing. Was it Tarafdar’s idea that Nayan should stay with him, or was it yours?’ ‘I shall be honest with you, Mr Mitter. The suggestion was first made by Mr Tarafdar, but only after he had seen Nayan. I had taken my son to see him.’ ‘When was that?’ ‘The day after I came to know about his power with numbers. It was the second of December.’ ‘Why did you decide to take him to Tarafdar in the first place?’ ‘There was only one reason for that, Mr Mitter. As you can see, I am not a rich man. I have four children, and only a small job in a post office. My salary gets wiped out long before a month gets over. I have no savings. In fact, I haven’t been able to put Nayan in a school at all. When I think of the future of my family, it terrifies me. So when I realized Nayan had a special power, I thought that might be put to good use. It may sound awful, but in my situation, anyone would welcome the chance to earn something extra.’ ‘Yes, I understand. There’s nothing wrong with what you did. So you took Nayan to see Tarafdar. What happened next?’ ‘Mr Tarafdar wanted to test Nayan himself. So I told him to ask him any question that might be answered in numbers. Tarafdar said to Nayan, “Can you tell me how old I am?” Nayan said, “Thirty- three years, three months and three days.” Tarafdar asked two more questions. Then he made me an offer. If I allowed him to take Nayan on the stage with him, he’d pay me a certain amount of money regularly. I agreed. Then he asked me how much I expected to be paid. With a lot of hesitation, I said, “A thousand rupees.” Tarafdar laughed at this and said, “Wrong, you’re quite wrong. Nayan, can you give us the figure that’s in my head?” And Nayan said immediately, “Three zero zero zero.” Mr Tarafdar kept his word. He’s already paid me an advance of three thousand rupees. So when he suggested that Nayan should stay in his house, I couldn’t refuse him.’ ‘Was Nayan happy about going and living with a virtual stranger?’ ‘Yes, surprisingly enough. He agreed quite happily, and now seems to be perfectly content.’ ‘One more question, Mr Sarkar.’ ‘Yes?’ ‘How did you first learn about his power?’ ‘It happened purely out of the blue. One fine morning he just woke up and said to me, “Baba, I can see lots of things . . . they’re running helter-skelter, and some are jumping up and down. Can you see them, too?” I said, “No, I can see nothing. What are these things, anyway?” He said, “Numbers. They’re all numbers, from nine to zero. I’ve a feeling if you asked me something that had anything to do with numbers, these crazy ones would stop dancing around.” I didn’t believe him, of course, but thought a child ought to be humoured. So I said, “All right. What is that big fat book