"I am truly sorry, I am truly sorry," the babu was murmuring at our
elbows.

"What does this mean?" we demanded of him.

He produced a thick book.

"It is in here--the law," he explained. "You must not flog men on the
station platform. It was my duty to report."

"How did we know that? Why didn't you tell us?"

"If you had gone there"--he pointed ten feet away to a spot exactly like
all other spots--"it would have been off the platform. Then I had
nothing to say."

We tried to become angry.

"But why in blazes couldn't you have told us of that quietly and
decently? We'd have moved."

"It is the law" He tapped his thick book.

"But we cannot be supposed to know by heart every law in that book. Why
didn't you warn us before reporting?" we insisted.

"I am truly sorry," he repeated. "I hope and trust it will not prove
serious. But it is in the book."

We continued in the same purposeless fashion for a moment or so longer.