commented severely on the conduct of the station police and directed
them to return a verdict of not guilty, which they promptly did.

Ghaneshyám Babu did not let the matter drop. He moved the District
Magistrate to prosecute Ramani Babu and his bailiff, Srikrishna, for
conspiring to charge an innocent man with murder. Both were brought
to trial and, despite the advocacy of a Calcutta barrister, they each
received a sentence of six months' rigorous imprisonment. Justice,
lame-footed as she is, at length overtook a pair of notorious
evil-doers.



CHAPTER IV

The Biter Bitten.

Babu Chandra Mohan Bai, or Chandra Babu, as he was usually called,
was a rich banker with many obsequious customers. He was a short
choleric man, very fond of his hookah, without which he was rarely
seen in public. He had no family, except a wife who served him
uncomplainingly, and never received a letter or was known to write
one except in the course of business. His birthplace, nay his caste,
were mysteries. But wealth conceals every defect, and no one troubled
to inquire into Chandra Babu's antecedents. This much was known--that
he had come to Kadampur fifteen years before my tale opens with a brass
drinking-pot and blanket, and obtained a humbly-paid office as a clerk
under a local Zemindar. In this capacity he made such good use of the
means it offered of extorting money that he was able to set up as a
moneylender at Simulgachi, close to Kadampur. When people learnt that