Khan
before. So he ordered that he should be detained in custody and charged
next morning with having assaulted a public officer in the discharge of
his duty.

The Inspector also received a warning but he did not listen to it. Then
Hasan Khan took out a piece of paper and a pencil from his pocket and
wrote down the number of each of the six or seven policemen who had
taken part in beating him; and he assured everybody (a large number of
persons had gathered now) present that the constables and the Inspector
would be dismissed from Government service within the next one hour.

Most of the people had not seen him before and not knowing who he was,
laughed. The Inspector and the constables laughed too. After the mirth
had subsided Hasan Khan was ordered to be handcuffed and removed. When
the handcuffs had been clapped on he smiled serenely and said "I order
that all the lights within half a mile of where we are standing be put
out at once." Within a couple of seconds the whole place was in
darkness.

The entire Government House Compound which was a mass of fire only a
minute before was in total darkness and the street lamps had gone out
too. The only light that remained was on the street lamp-post under
which our friends were.

The commotion at the reception could be more easily imagined than
described.

There was total darkness everywhere. The guests were treading literally
on each other's toes and the accidents that happened to the carriages
and horses were innumerable.

As good luck would have it another Police Inspector who was also on duty
and was on horse-back came up to the only light within a circle of half
a mile radius.

To him Hasan Khan said "Go and tell your Commissioner of Police that his
subordinates have ill-treated Hasan Khan and tell him that I order him
to come here at once."

Some laughed others scoffed but the Inspector on horse-back went and
within ten minutes the Commissioner of the Calcutta Police came along
with half a dozen other high officials enquiring what the trouble was
about.

To them Hasan Khan told the story of the thrashing he had received and
pointed out the assailants. He then told the Commissioner that if those
constables and the Inspector who had ordered him to be handcuffed were
dismissed, on the spot, from Government service, the lamps would be
lighted without human assistance. To the utter surprise of everybody
present (including the high officials who had come out wit