book is at once popular and sells like hotcakes and Margayya hits a fortune. Margayya is again ruined through his son Balu. He had admitted him in school in great style, getting the blessing of his brother and sister-in-law next door. His wealth had made him become the Secretary of the School Managing Committee. This had armed him with enough power over the Headmaster and the School Staff. He had engaged a private tutor for his son and instructed him to thrash the boy whenever necessary. But Balu was not good at his studies. He could not clear his S.S.L.C. He tried to persuade him to take the examination for the second time. The result was that Balu seized the School Leaving Certificate Book, tore it into quarters and threw them into the gutter the same gutter which closed its dark waters over Margayya's red account book, carrying away the School Leaving Certificate Book. Then Balu ran away from home. A few days later there was a letter from Madras telling Margayya that his son was dead. The brother's family immediately comes to his help, though Margayya felt that he could do without their help and wondered if that would change the existing relationship between them. He left for Madras, discovered through the good offices of a fellow traveller a police inspector in plain clothes that his son was not really dead, traced the boy and brought him home. He wanted to marry him to a girl named Brinda, the daughter of the owner of a tea estate in Memphis Hills. When a pundit, after an honest study, declared that the horoscopes of Balu and Brinda did not match, he was curtly dismissed with a fee of one rupee. Another astrologer, whom Dr Pal found, gave it in writing that the two horoscopes matched perfectly and was paid Rs. 75 for his pains. Balu and his wife were helped to set up an establishment of their own in Lawley Extension. Margayya, wishing to draw Dr Pal away from his son, sought his help in attracting deposits from Black Marketers on the promise of interest of 29%. If he got Rs. 20,000 deposit each day and paid Rs. 15,000 in interest, he had still Rs. 5,000 a day left in his hands as his own. Margayya became rich. It was now necessary for him to own a car. Every nook and