Mr Tarafdar and his friend left at a quarter to ten. Just five minutes after they had gone, Feluda received a phone call that came as a complete surprise. He took it himself, so at first we had no idea who it was from. He spoke briefly, and came back to join us for a cup of tea. ‘I checked in the directory,’ he said, raising a cup to his lips, ‘there are only two such names listed.’ ‘Look, Felu Babu,’ Lalmohan Babu said, a little irritably, ‘I totally fail to see why you must create a mystery out of every little thing. Who rang you just now? Do you mind telling us simply, without making cryptic remarks?’ ‘Hingorani.’ ‘The same Hingorani we read about this morning?’ ‘Yes, sir. Tiwari’s partner.’ ‘What did he want?’ ‘We’ll find that out when we visit him in his house. He lives in Alipore Park Road.’ ‘Have you made an appointment?’ ‘Yes, you ought to have realized it while I was speaking to him. Obviously, you were not paying enough attention.’ ‘I heard you say, “Five o’ clock this evening”,’ I couldn’t help saying. This annoyed Lalmohan Babu even more. ‘I don’t listen in on other people’s telephone conversations, as a matter of principle,’ he declared righteously. But he was much mollified afterwards when Feluda asked him to stay to lunch, and then spent the whole afternoon teaching him to play scrabble. This did not prove too easy, since it turned out that Lalmohan Babu had never done a crossword puzzle in his life, while Feluda was a wizard at all word games, and a master at unravelling puzzles and ciphers. But Lalmohan Babu’s good humour had been fully restored; he didn’t seem to mind. We reached Mr Hingorani’s house five minutes before the appointed time. There was a garage on one side of his compound in which stood a large white car. ‘A foreign car?’ asked Lalmohan Babu. ‘No, it’s Indian. A Contessa,’ Feluda replied. A bearer stood at the front door. He looked at Lalmohan Babu and asked, ‘Mitter sahib?’ ‘No, no, not me. This is Mr Mitter.’ ‘Please come with me.’ We followed him to the drawing room. ‘Please sit down,’ said the bearer and disappeared. Lalmohan Babu and I found two chairs. Feluda began inspecting the contents of a book case. A grandfather clock stood on the landing outside. Mr Hingorani entered the room as the clock struck five, making a deep yet melodious sound. Mr Hingorani was middle-aged, thin and perhaps

ailing, for there were deep, dark circles under his eyes. We rose as he came in. ‘Please, please be seated,’ he said hurriedly. We sat down again. Mr Hingorani began talking. I noticed that the strap of his watch was slightly loose, as it kept slipping forward when he moved his arm. ‘Have you read what’s been published in the press about T H Syndicate?’ he asked. ‘Yes indeed.’ ‘My partner’s gone totally senile. At least, I can’t