Shyamlal Mallik was not injured, but the two hours he had had to spend with his hands and feet tied had shaken him very deeply. He was sitting on the mattress in his room, staring blankly into space. ‘If they had to tie me up like that, why didn’t they kill me?’ I heard him mutter. I wondered if he knew all his money was gone. Feluda searched Shyamlal’s room very thoroughly. Only the big chest had been opened. Everything else had been left undisturbed. The key to the chest used to be kept under his pillow. Bholanath Babu, who also slept on the first floor, was attacked in his sleep. Naturally, he had not been able to offer any resistance at all. The bearer had slept through it all, no one had gone anywhere near his room. One of the guards was away, and the other had been struck on his head by a heavy rod, which had left him unconscious for several hours. Jeevanlal’s grandmother lived in the rear portion of the house. Fortunately, she knew nothing of what had happened. We spent fifteen minutes talking to Bholanath Babu and the servants, but there was no sign of Jeevanlal. ‘Did he go off to call the police?’ Feluda asked. ‘I don’t know, sir,’ Bholanath Babu faltered ‘He sent me to your house and I saw him go out, but I haven’t seen him since.’ Without a word, Feluda ran towards the stairs, with Lalmohan Babu and me behind him. We climbed down to the ground floor, crossed a courtyard and went into the garden through the back door. The sun had just risen, and there was a thin mist. The grass and the leaves were wet with the early morning dew. Crows and mynahs and some other birds I couldn’t recognize had started going about their business. We made our way through the garden, but had to stop in just a few minutes. Under a jackfruit tree lay the figure of a man. I recognized the blue shirt he was wearing, the white pyjamas and the chappals. It was Jeevanlal Mallik. Feluda strode forward quickly and looked down at him. ‘My God!’ he exclaimed in horror, stepping back. ‘Felu Babu!’ Lalmohan Babu called, pointing at an object lying a few feet away from the body. ‘I know, I have seen it. Please don’t touch it. That’s what was used to kill Jeevanlal.’ It was a square piece of cloth, with a stone tied round one corner. Bholanath Babu had followed us out and realized what had happened. ‘I don’t believe this!’ he cried and looked as if he was about to faint. ‘Please pull yourself together,’ Feluda said to him, laying a hand on his shoulder. ‘This is not the time to give way to despair. You must inform the police. If you like, Lalmohan Babu will go with you. Nobody must touch either the body or the weapon. This must have happened pretty recently. Perhaps the killer