Page 20 - Train to Pakistan

hand on her mouth.
The couple lay still, peering into the dark. The five men carrying guns and

spears passed within a few yards of them. They had uncovered their faces and
were talking.
‘Dakoo! Do you know them?’ the girl asked in a whisper.

‘Yes,’ Juggut said, ‘The one with the torch is Malli.’ His face went tight.
‘That incestuous lover of his sister! I’ve told him a thousand times this was no
time for dacoities. And now he has brought his gang to my village! I will settle

this with him.’
The dacoits went up to the river and then downstream towards the ford a
couple of miles to the south. A pair of lapwings pierced the still night with

startled cries: Teet-tittee-tittee-whoot, tee-tee-whoot, tee-tee-whoot, tit-tit-tee-
whoot.
‘Will you report them to the police?’

Juggut Singh sniggered. ‘Let us get back before they miss me in the village.’
The pair walked back towards Mano Majra, the man in front, the girl a few
paces behind him. They could hear the sound of wailing and the barking of dogs.

Women were shouting to each other across the roofs. The whole village seemed
to be awake. Juggut Singh stopped near the pond and turned round to speak to
the girl.

‘Nooro, will you come tomorrow?’ he asked, pleading.
‘You think of tomorrow and I am bothered about my life. You have your good
time even if I am murdered.’

‘No one can harm you while I live. No one in Mano Majra can raise his
eyebrows at you and get away from Jugga. I am not a badmash for nothing,’ he
said haughtily. ‘You tell me tomorrow what happens or the day after tomorrow

when all this—whatever it is—is over. After the goods train?’
‘No! No! No!’ answered the girl. ‘What will I say to my father now? This
noise is bound to have woken him up.’

‘Just say you had gone out. Your stomach was upset or something like that.
You heard the firing and were hiding till the dacoits had left. Will you come the

day after tomorrow then?’
‘No,’ she repeated, this time a little less emphatically. The excuse might work.
Just as well her father was almost blind. He would not see her silk shirt, nor the
antimony in her eyes. Nooran walked away into the darkness, swearing she