The information which he had received from Chandra Mohan afforded Akshay much food for thought.
"What can be at the bottom of it," he asked himself. "So Ramesh has been practising at Ghazipur, has he ? He succeeded in covering his tracks pretty well ! What can have induced him to throw up his practice and to have the effrontery to show his face again in this street ? He's bound to discover sooner or later that Annada Babu and Hemamalini are in Benares ; then he will make the bee-line for the place."
Akshay resolved to visit Ghazipur in the meantime and to collect all possible information there ; after that he would proceed to Benares and seek an interview with Annada Babu.
It thus happened that on a December afternoon shortly afterwards Akshay might been seen alighting at Ghazipur, bag in hand.
He commenced enquiry about Ramesh Babu by tackling the shopkeepers in the market ; but exhaustive inquiries convinced him that no lawyer of that name was known to the tradesmen.
He next tried the courts, He found a beturbaned Bengali pleader at the court and he accosted that lawyer with the remark, "Excuse me, sir. I'm looking for one Ramesh Chandra Chaudhuri, a Bengali pleader who came here recently ; do you happen to know where he lives ?"
He was informed that Ramesh had lived for some time in Uncle's house, but whether he was still there or not the pleader did not know ; his wife was missing and it was believed that she had been drowned.
Akshay now directed his steps to Uncle's house.
"I see Ramesh's game now," he mused as he went along ; "his wife is dead and he will now proceed to demonstrate to Hemamalini's satisfaction that he never had a wife. In her present frame of mind Hemamalini will believe anything that he hears from Ramesh. These over-righteous folk are really terrible fellows when one penetrates their secrets !" and Akshay mentally congratulated himself on his own integrity.
Questioned by Akshay regarding Ramesh and Kamala, Uncle was unable to control his emotion and tears flowed from his eyes.
"As you are a special friend of Ramesh " he said, "you must have known that dear girl Kamala intimately ; so you will not be surprised to hear that I had only known her for a day or two when I completely forgot that she was not one of my own daughters. How could I have foreseen that the dear girl would inflict such a terrible blow on one whom she had so thoroughly captivated in so short a time ?"
"The whole thing seems to me inexplicable," replied Akshay in feigned sympathy. "It's obvious that Ramesh can't have treated her well."
"Ramesh is a friend of yours and you mustn't take offence at what I say ; but to tell the truth, I've never been able to understand him. He's a pleasant enough fellow to talk to, but it's impossible to know what's going on in his mind. He must be abnormal, otherwise one can't explain how he could neglect such a charming little wife as Kamala. She was so true to him that though she and my daughter were as intimate as two sisters she never breathed a word against her husband. My daughter could tell very well at times that Kamala was brooding over something, but to the end she never got a word out of the child. It breaks my heart, as you may well imagine, to think what a girl like her must have suffered before she took the final plunge. The cruelest feature is that I happened to be away in Allahabad at that time. Had I been on the spot I do not believe she would have had the heart to desert me."
Next morning Uncle conducted Akshay to Ramesh's bungalow and together they visited the scene of Kamala's disappearance.
When they returned to Chakrabartt's house Akshay remarked, "Do you know, sir, I can't feel as certain as you that Kamala actually committed suicide by drowning herself in the river. I'm inclined to believe that she ran away from home. We ought to have thorough search made for her."
Uncle leapt up from his chair in his excitement, "you may be right," he exclaimed, "it's by no means improbable."
Akshay suggested that there was a family known to him and Ramesh very intimately and it's possible that Kamala took shelter with them.
"Why, Ramesh never told me that !" cried Uncle, his natural buoyancy reasserting itself. "Had I known, I should certainly have made inquiries from those people." They proposed to visit Benares together to make fullest possible investigation.
Akshay imagined that with Uncle's testimony to corroborate he would be able to succeed in making his plan of proving Ramesh's double-dealing and making Hemamalini believe him.
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