to give that time, if necessary. I am now feeling my ground, but I want your help.”
I found Brajkishore Babu exceptionally coolheaded. “We shall render all the help we can,” he said quietly, “but pray tell us what kind of help you will need.”
And thus we sat talking until midnight.
“I shall have little use for your legal knowledge,” I said to them. “I want clerical assistance and help in interpretation. It may be necessary to face imprisonment, but, much as I would love you to run that risk, you would go only so far as you feel yourselves capable of going. Even turning yourselves into clerks and giving up your profession for an indefinite period is no small thing. I find it difficult to understand the local dialect of Hindi, and I shall not be able to read papers written in Kaithi or Urdu. I shall want you to translate them for me. We cannot afford to pay for this work. It should all be done for love and out of a spirit of service.”