After a few minutes' conversation, however, the train steamed into the Station.
The Swadeshi preacher, accompanied by Pleaders, Mukhtears, students and others who had come to see him off, hurried towards the train. He held a second class return ticket. Just as he opened the door of a compartment, a European passenger who was inside, shouted out—"Oh you,—this is not for kala admis."
"You don't suppose my rupees were black too, do you? I also happen to hold a second class ticket,"—retorted the Swadeshi preacher and stepped inside.
Now this was too much for the Badshah-ka-dost.[1] He got up in a fury and gave a violent push to the disloyalty incarnate—clad in a dhoti kurta and silk chudder. Although Benoy Babu was the worthy editor of the "Heroic India," he was not much of an athlete. His health and his strength he had sacrificed at the shrine of the Calcutta University and had received a few pieces of paper by way of blessing. He had obtained, besides, a pair of
- ↑ The allusion here is to the military officer who wantonly assaulted a respectable Punjabi Pleader on the Kalka-Simla road some years back and at the same time boasted that he was Badshah-ka-dost (a friend of the Emperor himself).—God save the Emperor from such friends.—Translator.
