We had left the house at ten o’clock. By the time we got back, it was half past twelve. Feluda wanted to return the sword to Mahitosh Babu, but we discovered on our return that he had gone with Mr Sanyal to visit the Head of the Forest Department in the forest bungalow in Kalbuni. So we went to our room, taking the sword with us. Before we did this, however, we spent some time on the ground floor. Feluda went to the trophy room. I could not tell what he was thinking, but he began to examine all the guns that were displayed there. He picked up each one, and inspected its barrel, its butt, trigger and safety catch. Lalmohan Babu began to ask him something, but Feluda told him to be quiet. ‘This is a time to think, Lalmohan Babu,’ he said, ‘not to chat.’ By this time, Lalmohan Babu had become quite familiar with Feluda’s moods, so he promptly shut up. Feluda finished inspecting the trophy room and turned to go upstairs. We followed silently. He spoke again on reaching the veranda on the first floor. ‘What’s this?’ he asked, stopping suddenly and staring at Devtosh Babu’s room. ‘Why is the elder brother’s room locked?’ There was a padlock on the door. Where could he have gone? Why had he left the room locked? Feluda said nothing more. We reached our room. Feluda spent the next few minutes sitting quietly, frowning; then he got up and paced restlessly, stopped short and sat down again. Two minutes later, he was back on his feet. I knew this mood well. He always acted like this as he got closer to unravelling a complex mystery. ‘Since there is no one about, and Devtosh Babu’s room is locked,’ he said suddenly, ‘it might not be a bad idea to do a bit of snooping.’ He left the room. I stuck my head out of the door and saw him go into Mahitosh Babu’s study. I came back into our room to find Lalmohan Babu stretched on the leopard skin on the floor. He was using its head as a pillow. Clearly, seeing a tiger’s pug mark in the forest had gone a long way to boost his courage. After a few seconds of silence, he remarked, ‘Thank goodness I thought of dedicating my book to Mahitosh Sinha-Roy! Could we ever have had such a thrilling experience if I hadn’t? Just take this morning: a bullet in a bamboo grove, a snake in the grass, pug marks of a Royal Bengal, a ruined old temple, a famous peepul tree . . . what more could anyone want? All that’s left to make the experience complete is an encounter with the man-eater.’ ‘Do you really want that?’ I asked. ‘I am not scared any more,’ he replied, yawning noisily. ‘If you have Madhavlal on one side, and Felu Mitter on the other, no man-eater can do anything to you!’ He closed his eyes,