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The work went on for weeks, proceeding slowly, until we had cleared some of the growth from the derricks and the old equipment. The condition of everything was so bad that again and again we had to persuade ourselves to go on; we’d pretty much have to rebuild everything from the ground up and then who knew whether there would be enough in the mine left to make it worth the effort.

Every evening, after the session at Matal’s hut which, though unavoidable, was frankly irksome for both Ganesan and me, we used to walk up from the village up to the mine. At first we’d use our torches, but as the weeks passed, we became more and more used to the way; also, the moon grew and grew in its cycle towards fullness until we hardly needed the torches anymore.

On the night before the moon was full, we were at Matal’s when something very strange happened. We were about to leave after the usual drinking session when the old chief stood up and walked to the door, and stood there, looking out at the moonlit night.

"It will be full moon tomorrow," he observed, in the pidgin Hindi we used to communicate.

"Yes," I said. The landscape was silver and beautiful. "It’s nice, isn’t it?"

"Tomorrow night," Matal said heavily, "you two will stay here, in my hut. You will not spend it at the camp."

"Why not?" Naturally, we were astonished. Matal had never suggested anything like this before.

"Listen to an old man who has lived his entire life in these parts," he said. "When you come here tomorrow, come ready to spend the night. You can leave in the morning."

We looked at him. He seemed perfectly serious, and stone sober. He must have understood that we doubted him, so he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back to my stool, nodding at Ganesan to follow. His grip was potent for an old man.

"You must have noticed," he said, "that I don’t visit your mine site. Probably you’ve been wondering why. I know that most places you’d find the chief up there at all hours, and the village people too, to try and steal what they could while the officers were away. But you’ve seen, I’m sure, that not even the village thieves have troubled you at night."

Ganesan and I looked at each other. We’d locked up the old rail wagon the first few days, but nobody had ever stolen any item we’d left out in the open, so we’d stopped bothering. We’d just assumed the village people were exceptionally honest, for all their laziness.

"I used to go there a lot once," Matal said, "when I was younger. I used to look for things I could use, and sometimes I went there at night too, because that was the only time I was free during the harvest season. I found a lot of things too, but that doesn’t matter right now.

"The last time I went there was one full moon night. Now, even before me, many of the young men of the village had been up there at night, to forage or with a girl; you know how young men are. And one or two of them had been up there on full moon nights, and they had told me of having seen strange things – things they didn’t want to talk about, but after that I saw that they didn’t want to go up there again.

"That night I was there alone. I’d taken women up there, like the others, sometimes, but that occasion there was nothing like that. I was looking for a good knife, and there were a lot of things still left over then, from the war, so I thought I might find something I could use.

"I found a knife almost at once. The place wasn’t so overgrown in those days, of course, and I found it half-buried near the entrance of the mine. It was full moon, so I saw it easily. I’m glad I did, because after that night I could never force myself to go up there again.

"I’d just taken that knife out of the earth and rubbed it clean on my shawl when..."

"All this is very interesting," said Ganesan, who had been nodding for some time, "but we’ve had an exhausting day, and we have a long day tomorrow, so if you’ll excuse us..."

I, too, was feeling the effect of exhaustion and the raw rough wine. I stood up too. "We’ll talk more about it tomorrow," I said.

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