“My greed today embraces the wealth of all Bengal,” replied Sandip. “Is there a greater force than greed? It is the steed of the great ones of the earth, as is the elephant, Airauat, the steed of Indra. So then these jewels are mine?”
As Sandip took up and replaced the casket under his cloak, Amulya rushed in. There were dark rings under his eyes, his lips were dry, his hair tumbled: the freshness of his youth seemed to have withered in a single day. Pangs gripped my heart as I looked on him.
“My box!” he cried, as he went straight up to Sandip without a glance at me. “Have you taken that jewel-box from my trunk?”
“Your jewel-box?” mocked Sandip.
“It was my trunk!”
Sandip burst out into a laugh. “Your distinctions between mine and yours are getting rather thin, Amulya,” he cried. “You will die a religious preacher yet, I see.”
Amulya sank on a chair with his face in his hands. I went up to him and placing my hand on his head asked him: “What is your trouble, Amulya?”
He stood straight up as he replied: “I had set my heart, Sister Rani, on returning your jewels to you with my own hand. Sandip Babu knew this, but he forestalled me.”
“What do I care for my jewels?” I said. “Let them go. No harm is done.”
“Go? Where?” asked the mystified boy.
“The jewels are mine,” said Sandip. “Insignia bestowed on me by my Queen!”
“No, no, no,” broke out Amulya wildly. “Never, Sister Rani! I brought them back for you. You shall not give them away to anybody else.”
“I accept your gift, my little brother,” said I. “But let him, who hankers after them, satisfy his greed.”
Amulya glared at Sandip like a beast of prey, as he growled: “Look here, Sandip Babu, you know that even hanging has no terrors for me. If you dare take away that box of jewels …”
With an attempt at a sarcastic laugh Sandip said: “You also ought to know by this time, Amulya, that I am not the man to be afraid of you.”
“Queen Bee,” he went on, turning to me, “I did not come here today to take these jewels, I came to give them to you. You would have done wrong to take my gift at Amulya’s hands. In order to prevent it, I had first to make them clearly mine. Now these my jewels are my gift to you. Here they are! Patch up any understanding with this boy you like. I must go. You have been at your special talks all these days together, leaving me out of them. If special happenings now come to pass, don’t blame me.
“Amulya,” he continued, “I have sent on your trunks and things to your lodgings. Don’t you be keeping any belongings of yours in my room any longer.” With this parting shot, Sandip flung out of the room.
XIX
“I have had no peace of mind, Amulya,” I said to him, “ever since I sent you off to sell my jewels.”
“Why, Sister Rani?”
“I was afraid lest you should get into trouble with them, lest they should suspect you for a thief. I would rather go without that six thousand. You must now do another thing for me—go home at once, home to your mother.”
Amulya produced a small bundle and said: “But, sister, I have got the six thousand.”
“Where from?”
“I tried hard to get gold,” he went on, without replying to my question, “but could not. So I had to bring it in notes.”
“Tell me truly, Amulya, swear by me, where did you get this money?”
“That I will not tell you.”
Everything seemed to grow dark before my eyes. “What terrible thing have you done, Amulya?” I cried. “Is it then …”
“I know you will say I got this money wrongly. Very well, I admit it. But I have paid the full price for my wrongdoing. So now the money is mine.”
I no longer had any desire to learn more about it. My very blood-vessels contracted, making my whole body shrink within itself.
“Take it away, Amulya,” I implored. “Put it back where you got it from.”
“That would be hard indeed!”
“It is not hard, brother dear. It was an evil moment when you first came to me. Even Sandip has not been able to harm you as I have done.”
Sandip’s name seemed to stab him.
“Sandip!” he cried. “It was you alone who made me come to know that man for what he is. Do you know, sister, he has not spent a pice out of those sovereigns he took from you? He shut himself into his room, after he left you, and gloated over the gold, pouring it out in a heap on the floor. ‘This is not money,’ he exclaimed, ‘but the petals of the divine lotus of power; crystallized strains of music from the pipes that play in the paradise of wealth! I cannot find it in my heart to change them, for they seem longing to fulfil their destiny of adorning the neck of Beauty. Amulya, my boy, don’t you look at these with your fleshly eye, they are Lakshmi’s smile, the gracious radiance of Indra’s queen. No, no, I can’t give them up to that boor of a manager. I am sure, Amulya, he was telling us lies. The police haven’t traced the man who sank that boat. It’s the manager who wants to make something out of it. We must get those letters back from him.’
“I asked him how we were to do this; he told me to use force or threats. I offered to do so if he would return the gold. That, he said, we could consider later. I will not trouble you, sister, with all I did to frighten the man into giving up those letters and burn them—it is a long story. That very night I came to Sandip and said: ‘We are now safe. Let me have the sovereigns to return them tomorrow
