Indranath
I began to row, and heard Indra say, 'Look this way. There! Do you see something black on the left? That's a reef. A canal passes through it, and we shall have to go through the canal; but, mind you, as slow as anything! You see, if the fishermen find us out they won't let us come back alive. They will knock our heads to atoms with their poles and bury us deep in the mud.' Terror-stricken, I answered, 'Don't let's go that way then.' Perhaps Indra laughed a little as he said, 'But there is no other way. We must pass through that canal. Even steamers could not force a way through the strong current that flows beside the big reef yonder there, and how could we do it? We can come back that way, but not go now.' 'Then,' said I, as I pulled in the oar, 'let's have no more of this business.'
In an instant the canoe took a sharp curve round and sped back with the current. 'Why did you come then?' asked Indra, greatly disgusted, and in a threatening whisper he added, 'All right! I'll take you back again, coward!'
I was in my fifteenth year, and to be called a coward! In a flash I put out my oar and began to row for all I was worth. 'Right!' said Indra. 'But easy, my boy! The fishermen are terrible ruffians. I will steer beside the willow trees through that field of maize so that the rascals will know nothing of it.' And then he said laughing, 'And what if they do? It won't be so easy to catch us. Look here, Srikanta, never you fear. The idiots have got as many as four canoes, it's true, but when you find that they are drawing all round us and there is no way of escape, then down you jump into the water. You dive, and come out as far away as you can. Do you see? It
19
