shut himself up in his wife's room. There
everything reminded him of her; the scrupulous neatness of floor
and walls--no cobwebs hanging from the rafters, the kitchen utensils
shining like mirrors. He sat down and burst into a flood of tears.

For several days he did not exchange a word with his accomplice, and
dared not go to market lest his worst fears should be realised. Dread
of personal consequences added new torture to unavailing remorse. Every
moment he expected the red-pagried ministers of justice to appear and
hale him to the scaffold. The position was clearly past bearing. So,
too, thought Fatima, for she waylaid her son one afternoon and said:
"Ramzan, I cannot stand this life any longer; let me go to my brother
Mahmud Sardar, the cooly-catcher".

"Go," he replied sullenly, and the old woman gathered up her
belongings in a bundle and departed, leaving him to face the dark
future alone.

While brooding over his fate, he was startled by the sudden arrival of
Sadhu. "Now I'm in for it," he thought and began to tremble violently
while his features assumed an ashen hue. But Sadhu sat down by his
side and said, "Ramzan, I've come about Maini".

"Then she's drowned!" gasped Ramzan. "By Allah the Highest, I swear
that I did my best to save her."

"Hullo!" rejoined Sadhu with great surprise; "you must have been with
her when she fell into the nullah."

Ramzan bent his head in silence. After a few moments he looked up,
clasped his hands, and said:--

"Tell me the truth, Sadhu, is Maini alive?"

"She is," was the reply. "On Thursday morning she came to our house
dripping wet and quite exhausted, with a story that your mother had
turned her out of doors and that she was on her way to live with
us when, on crossing the Padmajali Nullah, her foot slipped and she
fell into the water. She told us how, after being carried for nearly
a gau-coss (lit. cow league, the distance at which a cow's lowing
can be heard), she was swept by the stream against the overhanging
roots of a pipal tree (ficus religiosa) and managed to clamber up the
bank. But Maini never told us that you were with her. Why, Ramzan,
you're quaking in every limb. I always suspected Maini had concealed
the truth. Swear on the Quran that you did not try to drown her."

Ramzan feebly protested innocence, and the two men sat awhile without
speaking.

At length Sadhu said: "I've come to make you a proposal. Young Esaf,
the son of Ibrahim of our villag