The Bandits of Bombay: Adventures of Feluda Read Free Page A

Feluda said was called Mahalakshmi. Soon, we'd left it behind. Now the taxi we were following turned right. ‘If you want to go to your hotel, sir, I should go straight on,’ our driver told us.
    ‘No, turn right,’ Feluda instructed him.
    We turned right, still following the same taxi. Only a couple of minutes later, it slipped through the front gate of a building. Feluda told our driver to stop outside the gate. The three of us got out. Almost at once, Lalmohan babu made a noise that sounded like a hiccup.
    The reason was clear. We were standing before a high-rise building. High on its wall, written in large black letters, were the words: Shivaji Castle.

 
    C HAPTER 3
     
    I was so taken aback by the sign that, for a few moments, I could not speak at all. ‘This is Telepathy with a capital T!’ Lalmohan babu exclaimed.
    Feluda did not say anything. He wasn't just looking at the building, but was darting sharp glances all around. To the left were a number of similar tall buildings, each with at least twenty floors. The buildings to the right were older and lower in height. Through the gaps between some of those buildings, the sea was visible.
    Our driver was looking at us with a puzzled air. Feluda told him to wait and went through the gate. Lalmohan babu and I stood outside, feeling a little foolish.
    Feluda returned in about three minutes. ‘Now let's go to Shalimar Hotel’, he said to the driver.
    We started another journey. Feluda lit a cigarette and said, ‘It is very likely that your packet went to the seventeenth floor.’
    ‘Oh my God, are you a magician? You managed to find out, in just three minutes, where that fellow went with the packet?’ Lalmohan babu asked.
    ‘There was no need to climb to the seventeenth floor to guess where he might have gone. There was a board over the lift on the ground floor. By the time I got there, it had already started climbing up. The board was flashing the numbers where it stopped. The last number that came on was seventeen. Now do you understand?’
    Lalmohan babu sighed. ‘Yes. What I don't understand is why I can't think of simple explanations.’
    It took us only five minutes to reach our hotel. Feluda and I were given a double room on the fifth floor. Lalmohan babu's room—a single—was opposite ours. Our room overlooked the street below. Every time I looked out of the window, I could see an endless stream of traffic. Facing the window were two high-rises, through which I could catch glimpses of the sea. It was easy to tell what a lively, thriving city Bombay was even without stepping out of the room.
    We were all feeling very hungry. So, after a quick wash, we went to the restaurant called Gulmarg on the second floor. As soon as our order was placed, Lalmohan babu asked the question that must have been trembling on his lips.
    ‘So you, too, can smell an adventure, Felu babu?’
    Feluda did not answer that question. Instead, he asked another.
    ‘Did you notice what that man did after collecting the book from you?’
    ‘Did? He just walked away, didn't he?’
    ‘No. You saw him go, but didn't notice the finer details. He walked away from you, then stopped and fished out a few coins from his pocket.’
    ‘Telephone!’ I exclaimed.
    ‘Well done, Topshe. I believe he then used a public telephone and rang someone in the city. I saw him again when we were waiting for our luggage.’
    ‘Where did you see him?’
    ‘Do you remember a car park just outside the terminal building? Visible from where we were standing?’
    ‘Yes, yes!’ I shouted. Lalmohan babu said nothing.
    ‘That man got into a blue Ambassador. There was a driver. He tried to start the car, but even after five minutes, nothing happened. The man got out and shouted at the driver. I could not hear him, but could tell by the expression on his face and his gestures that he was most displeased. Eventually, he gave up and walked away from the car.’
    ‘To get a taxi!’ Lalmohan babu spoke this