Sham Babu was quite reassured.  He came to the conclusion that Ramanath had attempted to injure his own brother, and returned home with a firm resolve to disregard such scandalous talk in future.

About three months afterwards he met Ramanath Babu quite casually in Harrison Road and, in the course of conversation, the latter asked whether he bad called in his loan to Gopal.

“I have done nothing of the kind,” was the curt reply.  “My brother-in-law tells me that he is quite solvent.”

“It was just like him to say so—­the selfish fellow!  I am sorry to say that my brother has lost heavily by speculating in jute and is, in fact, a ruined man.  If you don’t believe me, ask Hari Babu again and you will see what tune he sings.  Perhaps you don’t know that he has called in his loan of Rs. 20,000?”

“That is certainly strange,” replied Sham Babu with tears in his voice.  “He never breathed a word of any such intention to me.”

“Hari Babu is your brother-in-law,” continued Ramanath, “but Gopal is my own brother.  Is it likely that I would injure his reputation gratuitously?  No; you are an old friend whom I cannot allow to be ruined without a word of warning.  If you do not choose to act upon it, so much the worse for you.”

Sham Babu was now convinced that no time was to be lost in demanding proper security for the loan.  He went straight to his brother-in-law, to whom he repeated the information which he had received.

Hari Babu shook his head sadly.  “Yes,” he said, “I am afraid there is some truth in it.  Gopal is in temporary difficulties; but you need not be anxious.  I will get him to give you a mortgage on landed property worth much more than his debt to you.”

Sham Babu felt somewhat reassured, but there was a point to be cleared up.

“One word more,” he said, “have you called in your loan of Rs. 20,000?”

Hari Babu looked at him suspiciously.  “Who told you so?”

“I heard it from a reliable source.”

“It must have been Ramanath, who is always seeking to make mischief.  Well, yes, I did ask Gopal to repay me, not that I distrusted him but because I wanted to invest the money in land.”

Sham Babu felt indignant at the man’s gross selfishness, but he concealed his feelings and merely remarked that he would not leave Calcutta till the mortgage was settled.  Next morning he insisted on Hari Babu accompanying him to Gopal’s house at Entally.  They found the debtor apparently in high spirits, although he admitted that certain speculations had turned out badly.  When pressed by Sham Babu to repay the loan, he asked for time, pleading that his whole capital was locked up.  Sham Babu, however, was obdurate, and with his brother-in-law’s help he brought such pressure to bear on Gopal that the latter sulkily agreed to give him a mortgage on an ancestral estate in the Mufassil (interior of Bengal).  Sham Babu stuck closely to him until the bargain had been fulfilled, and managed matters so expeditiously that the mortgage deed was drawn up, executed, and registered in a week.  Though he had now something tangible to rely on in case of accidents still he was not happy, for Gopal discontinued paying interest on the loan and he did not dare to press him, lest he should precipitate a crash.