‘So she was the only one who got a close look at him?’
‘Is he so significant?’ Larry ventured. ‘I thought they were liable to turn up pretty well anywhere, come when they chose and leave when they chose.’
‘That is very true, but nonetheless this is curious. Consider this spot of which we are speaking! One bend of the road below the bungalow, where buses stop and a few people alight – one bend above the fruit-stall, where some at least of the passing cars might be expected to make a stop. But not
‘But there must be times when they’re not concerned solely with extracting money from people,’ said Larry.
‘Those who sincerely desire a solitude where thought is possible will not be found sitting, from choice, beside a motor road. No, this is not a proof of anything, but it is a most curious detail.’
‘It is also,’ the Swami pointed out delicately, ‘an apt occurrence of just what we were looking for – a stranger in the picture, however briefly. Someone who did not belong to the staff or the visitors at Thekady, or the bungalow, or the bus, or any part of that ordinary weekend excursion. Is it possible that she saw that face again elsewhere and recognised it? Perhaps at the lake, in quite a different connotation? He may be irrelevant, of course. But it would be no harm to inquire if such a Saivite devotee has also recently been seen near Malaikuppam.’
‘We will see to that at once,’ said Inspector Tilak, making notes with great vigour.
‘Then, if I may, I would like to consider the other possibility. For in this case we must find the right course of action, in addition to taking thought. If the bomb was meant for Purushottam, and not for Miss Galloway, many things are simplified. The Land-Rover need not have been followed here. The terrorist came here because this was where his assignment awaited him, and the arrival of Mr Preisinger’s party was merely coincidental. As we have said, a little reconnaissance would show that Purushottam has been spending his days in trying to make sense of his father’s affairs. In short, a bomb planted in his office and timed to go off at almost any time during the day, between meals, would have an excellent chance of securing his death. It was meant for him, and only by reason of the slight delay in the Land-Rover’s departure, and perhaps also of this idiosyncrasy of exploding ahead of the fixed time, did it kill Miss Galloway instead. Those are the two theories. Either is possible. But the reason we must take this last one seriously has little to do with which will eventually turn out to be the right one. It is simply this: In the one case, if they meant to kill Miss Galloway, they have succeeded, therefore they will wish only to disappear into the landscape and not be traced. In the other case, if they intended to kill Purushottam, they have failed.
‘Therefore,’ said the Swami, calmly and distinctly, ‘they will try again. So the question is, how are we going to ensure his protection?’
Purushottam, who had been all this time listening with only half his attention, and with the other half pondering some gnawing anxiety of his own, apparently in some way connected with Priya’s clear profile, jerked up his head with a startled and almost derisive smile. As though, Dominic thought, he still doesn’t altogether believe in the danger to himself, or, more perilously still, has no respect for it.
‘My protection? What can one do except take all sensible precautions, and then simply go ahead with living? I shan’t go looking for trouble, you can be sure. And we have a pretty large household, all of whom are to be trusted.’
‘Yet still Miss Galloway is dead,’ Inspector Raju reminded him austerely.
He flushed deeply. ‘I’m sorry, you’re right. I’d overlooked the fact that by attracting danger to myself I may have cost one life already. But that situation can easily be altered if you, sir, are prepared to let my guests proceed with their journey. Then I shall no longer be putting them in jeopardy.’
‘How can we go?’ Priya protested. ‘We have sent a cable to Patti’s parents, and we must be here to make arrangements – to do whatever they may wish. They may even fly over here to take her home. How can we abandon them now?’
‘As far as the police are concerned,’ Inspector Raju said, after a brief, consulting glance at his colleague, ‘the party is at liberty to proceed on the old terms. Provided they will keep in touch, and be available at need, they may leave in the morning.’
‘And I advise that they should,’ said the Swami. ‘I will remain here to receive Mr and Mrs Galloway, or their instructions, and will do whatever little can be done to make this loss easier for them. But that would not in itself solve the problem of Purushottam. No, don’t refuse me yet, first listen to what I suggest.’ He leaned forward, his linked hands quiet and still upon the table, and his brown, shrewd eyes surveyed them all at leisure, one by one. He had put on his wire-rimmed glasses, which sagged drunkenly to the right of his nose because the right lens was thicker and heavier than the left; and through the weighty pebble of glass his right eye put on its cosmic aspect, magnified out of reason and unnervingly wise. It lingered upon Priya, and passed on tranquilly enough; to Larry, on whom it pondered but briefly thoughtfully; to Lakshman, on whom it rested longer.
‘We have here a party of guests expected to drive on to Nagarcoil and the Cape. It is only too well-known to our enemy by now, of course, that only one young lady will be going home to Nagarcoil. But three young men came, and three will leave. Now I admit that if a close watch has been kept on this household during the past few days, the probability is that Purushottam may now be known by sight to those who are seeking his death. But on the other hand, there is quite a good chance that he is not. He has been back in India only a very short time, and so deeply preoccupied during that time that he has hardly been out of the gates until Tuesday. Lakshman is about the same build and colouring.’ The large, bright eye remained steadily trained upon Lakshman’s face. ‘Lakshman will remain here with me, in Purushottam’s clothes. He will become Purushottam. And Purushottam will go with the party in Lakshman’s place, as courier. Thus we can get him away safely from this house, on which the terrorist will be concentrating. It will gain us the time to take further measures, and allow the police to proceed more freely. And naturally,’ he added, ‘a very careful watch will be kept, twenty-four hours a day, upon Lakshman’s safety.’
It was done with such gentle assurance that only Dominic, who knew him so well, realised what an astonishing suggestion it was to come from a man like the Swami, to whom the humblest of lives ranked in value equal to the loftiest, and indeed would probably take precedence in its claims on his protection and solicitude. Nor had it even the remotest hope of being accepted. He looked curiously at Purushottam, whose mouth had already opened with predictable hauteur, to veto the proposition. He was probably the last young man in the world to allow himself to be smuggled out of his own house because of a criminal threat to his life, especially if it meant leaving someone else to bait a police trap in his place. Dominic waited confidently for him to say so, and for some reason the words had halted on the very tip of his tongue. He cast one brief, piercing side-glance at Priya’s profile, and another, as it seemed, back deep into his own mind, where he hid that private preoccupation which had been distracting him earlier. And he stopped to think before speaking. And then it was too late, for Lakshman had spoken first.
‘I am quite willing,’ he said, ‘if you think it will be helpful.’ His face was inscrutable, aloof and unsmiling, most markedly maintaining that ambivalence of his between servant and equal. There was even something of the proud forbearance of the servant assenting to something which should only be asked of an equal. And as though he had
