I t was almost under duress that I got Byomkesh to leave the house.

For the last month he had been concentrating on a complicated forgery case. He would sit with a pile of papers all day and try to conjure up the image of the criminal from it all. As the mystery thickened, so did his conversation trickle gradually to silence. I noticed that this endless ploughing through papers, sitting in the library day after day, wasn’t doing his health any good. But every time I brought this up, he would say, ‘Oh no, I am quite all right.’

That evening I said, ‘I am not going to take no for an answer. We’re going for a walk. You need at least a couple of hours’ respite in the day.’

‘But...’

‘No buts. Let’s go to the lake. Your forger won’t give you the slip in two hours.’

‘Oh, all right. ‘ He pushed the papers away and set off, but it wasn’t difficult to guess that his mind hadn’t let go of the problem at hand.

While walking by the lake I suddenly spotted a long-lost friend of mine. We had studied together until the Intermediate class—then he had entered the medical college. I hadn’t seen him since. I called out to him, ‘Hey, you’re Mohan, aren’t you? How are you doing?’

He turned around and exclaimed delightedly, ‘Ajit! It is you! It’s been so long. So tell me, how is everything?’ After exchanging excited greetings I introduced him to Byomkesh. Mohan said, ‘So you are Byomkesh Bakshi? Delighted to make your acquaintance. I did suspect at times that the Ajit Bandyopadhyay who writes about your exploits is our old friend, Ajit. But I wasn’t quite sure.’

I said, ‘So what are you up to nowadays?’

Mohan replied, ‘I have my practice here in Calcutta.’

We strolled about and spoke of this and that. An hour passed pleasantly. I noticed that during the conversation Mohan opened his mouth a couple of times as if to say something, but then stopped himself. Byomkesh must have noticed it too because at one point he smiled and said, ‘Please go ahead and say what you want to say.’

Mohan said, a little shyly, ‘There is something that I want to ask you, but I am hesitant. Actually it is such a trivial problem that it seems unfair to bother you with it. Yet—’

I said, ‘That’s all right, tell us. If nothing else, it will at least serve the purpose of delivering Byomkesh for a short while from the hands of that forger.’

‘Forger?’

I explained.

Mohan said,’I see! But perhaps Byomkeshbabu will laugh at what I have to say.’

‘If it is amusing I shall certainly laugh, ‘ said Byomkesh, ‘but from your manner it doesn’t seem to be a laughing matter. Instead it appears that a certain problem has kept you pondering—you are desperate to find a solution to it.’

Mohan said excitedly, ‘You are absolutely right. Perhaps it