Mahfil, vol. 1, no. 2 12
after having only a drink of water herself...,And this was the reward for all those sacrifices! That God who had left Paradise and come running to save Draupadi and even an elephant - why was he lost in sleep now?
The spectators1 sympathies gradually turned towards Dhaniya. No one doubted any longer that it was Hira who had pciso-2ie< the cow. They were all convinced that liori had sworn a false oath, Even Gobar turned against his father, fearing the disastrous consequences of that treacherous curse. On top of all this there was Datadin's condemnation. Hori was utterly defeated. He quietly went inside. Truth had been victorious.
"Do you know anything about what happened, Sobha?" Datadir inquired.
Sobha was stretched out on the ground, resting. "I, Mahara;]? I've not been out of the house for eight days. My brother Hori has been coming to see me from time to time - I get by on whatever he brings. He came to my place last night too. But if anyone did anything, I know nothing about it. Wait a minute, though
Hira did come over last evening to borrow a trowel. Said he wanted to dig up a small root. But I've not seen him since."
Seizing this bit of corroboration, Dhaniya declared, "You see, Panditni - it was obviously Hira's doing. He borrowed that trowel from Sobha, dug up a root of some kind and fed it to the cow. He's been waiting for revenge ever since that fight w^ had the other night."
"If this charge can be proved, he'll have to bear the ful^. consequences of the sin of cowslaughter. Whether the police do anything or not, the moral law demands his punishment. Rupa, go call Hira and bring him here. Tell him the Pandit has sent for him, If he's innocent of the crime, then let him take some Ganges water and make an oath on it at the temple altar,"
"But Mahara ;j," protested Dhaniya, "his oath can't be trusted. He'll swear to his innocence easily enough. When my husband here who's so religious^has sworn a false oath, why should we trust Hira?"
Now Gobar spoke up. "Let him sweacr falsely. Let the family come to an end. Let the old people go on living. What do the young people have to live for?"
Rupa was back in a moment. "Uncle isn't at home, Pandit Dada! Auntie says he's gone away somewhere."
"Didn't you ask where he'd gone?" Datadin inquired, stroking his long beard. "Maybe he's hiding in the house. You go look, Sona ~ and make sure he's not inside somewhere."
"Don't send her, Dada," Dhaniya interrupted. "Hira's in a mood tor murder. No telling what he might do."
Datadin himself hobbled off on his stick and brought back word that Hira had indeed disappeared, "Punni said he left, taking his sacred thread, pot, stick - everything. She asked where he was going, but he wouldn't say. The five rupees she'd been keeping in a niche in the wall are gone. He must have taken that also."
"He's blackened his name and so now he's run off some^ where," Dhaniya said bitterly.
"Where could he run to?" Sobha said. "Perhaps he's gone to bathe in the Ganges."