Feluda, Mr Sarkar and I were back in our hotel, sitting down to our dinner. Although the hotel was pretty average in many ways, it had an excellent cook. ‘A most decent fellow, I must say,’ remarked Mr Sarkar, trying to get the marrow out of a bone. A delicious lamb curry was on the menu tonight. ‘Who? You mean Dr Vaidya?’ ‘Yes. What a remarkably gifted man, too. He seemed to know everything.’ ‘Yes, you should be pleased,’ Feluda said, laughing. ‘Didn’t he tell you you were no longer in danger?’ ‘Why, didn’t you believe what he said?’ ‘If what he said turns out to be true, then of course I shall believe him. But, right now, I think we should be careful in what or whom we believe. There are so many cheats in this line.’ Feluda was frowning again. Something was obviously bothering him a great deal. I wish I knew what it was. ‘Do you believe what he said about the murder?’ Mr Sarkar persisted. ‘Yes, I do.’ ‘Really? Why?’ ‘There is a reason.’ Feluda refused to say anything more. The two of us went out after dinner again to buy paan. It hadn’t yet started to rain, but there was virtually no breeze. Feluda put a paan in his mouth and began pacing. After only a few minutes, however, he stopped and said, ‘I’m only wasting my time like this. Tell you what, Topshe, why don’t you go for a walk for half an hour? I’d like to work alone in our room, undisturbed.’ I agreed, and Feluda walked away. I ambled across to the opposite pavement and made my way slowly down the road that led to the main town. All the shops were closed. A few men were sitting in a circle in front of a shop and gambling. I heard someone rattle the dice, which was followed by a great shout and loud laughter. The street lights were dim, but even so I didn’t fail to notice the figure of a man coming from the opposite direction, walking very fast. As he came closer, I realized it was Helmut. Something stopped me from calling out to him. But he was so preoccupied that even when he passed me by, he didn’t seem to notice me at all. I stared foolishly at his receding back, until it vanished from sight. Then I looked at my watch and returned to the hotel. Feluda was lying flat on his back, resting his notebook on his chest. ‘I brought the list of suspects up to date,’ he told me as I came in. ‘Well, Virendra Shelvankar was already a suspect, wasn’t he? It’s just that we didn’t know his name. Have you added Dr Vaidya’s name to your list?’

Feluda grinned. ‘The man put up a jolly good show, I must admit. Yet, the whole thing could be genuine, who knows? But we mustn’t forget that he and Shelvankar had talked to each other. There’s no way of making sure whether Dr Vaidya is a fraud or not unless we can find out what exactly the two had discussed.’ ‘But he was right about Mr Sarkar, wasn’t he?’ ‘That was easy enough. Mr Sarkar was biting his nails constantly. Anyone could have guessed he was tense.’ ‘And what about the murder?’ ‘He may have said that only to create an effect. A natural death, or death by a real accident, is too tame. Call it a murder, and it sounds so much more dramatic.’ ‘So who’s on your list of suspects?’ ‘Everyone, as always.’ ‘Everyone including Dr Vaidya?’ ‘Yes. He may have known about the statue of Yamantak.’ ‘And Helmut? He walked past me just now, but didn’t seem to see me.’ This did not appear to surprise Feluda. ‘Helmut struck me as a mysterious character right from the start. He’s supposed to be taking photographs for a book on Sikkim, and yet he didn’t know about the Lama dance in Rumtek. That’s reason enough to feel suspicious about him.’ ‘Why? What can it mean?’ ‘It can mean that he hasn’t told us the real reason why he is here in Sikkim.’ I began to feel quite confused, so I stopped asking questions. Feluda went back to scribbling in his notebook. At a quarter to eleven, Mr Sarkar knocked on our door to say good-night. I tried to read a book after that, but couldn’t concentrate. Feluda spent his time either sitting silently or studying the entries in his notebook. I do not know when I fell asleep. When I woke, the mountains outside were bright with sunshine. Feluda was not in the room. Perhaps he was having a shower. I noticed a piece of paper on his bed, placed under an ashtray. Had he left a message for me? I picked it up and found a Tibetan word staring at me. I knew what it meant. Death.