as about to sum up for the
prosecution, when the Court rose suddenly, as it was past five o'clock.

Nalini was going homewards in the dusk, when he felt a hand laid
timidly on his shoulder. Turning sharply round, he saw an old
man standing by his side. On being asked his name and business,
the newcomer whispered some information which must have interested
Nalini greatly for he rubbed his hands, smiled, and nodded several
times. After a few minutes' talk the pair went together to a spot
where a palanquin with bearers was waiting. Into it got Nalini and
was carried off at a smart trot, while his companion hobbled behind.

When the Court assembled next day Nalini thus addressed the judge:
"May it please your honour, I have, by the greatest good luck,
obtained certain evidence which will, I think, place this case in a new
light". On getting leave to adduce an additional witness, he beckoned
to an old man, standing at the back of the Court, who entered the
witness-box and declared that his name was Ram Harak and that he was
a dismissed servant of the prisoner. This was a curious opening for
a witness for the defence, and dead silence fell on the Court while
Ram Harak proceeded to swear that it was he, and not Debendra Babu,
who had been intimate with the deceased, and that she had poisoned
herself to avoid excommunication.

"Did she tell you so herself?" asked the judge sharply.

"No, your highness; I learnt this only yesterday from Maina Bibi,
Karim's own sister; Piyari Bibi, Sadhu's daughter; and Nasiban Bibi,
his sister-in-law, who all lived with the deceased."

The Government Pleader at once objected to this statement being
recorded, as it was hearsay. Nalini, however, assured the judge
that the eye-witnesses were in attendance, and called them, one
by one, to give evidence. Passing strange was their story. On the
evening of Siraji's death they found her writhing in agony on the
floor and, on being questioned, she gasped out that she could bear
her kinsfolks' tyranny no longer. They had just told her that she
was to be excommunicated for intriguing with an infidel. So she had
got some yellow arsenic from the domes (low-caste leather-dressers)
and swallowed several tolas weight of the poison in milk. The other
women were thunderstruck. They sat down beside her and mingled their
lamentations until Siraji's sufferings ended for ever. They afterwards
agreed to say nothing about the cause of her death for fear of the
po