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‘Get him!’ she cried, jumping up and launching herself at Mr Ghosh. He fell backwards
and the torch flew out of his hands.
Suddenly, a deep voice from above shouted, ‘Get up at once! What are you trying to do?’ It
was the Principal!
The three children were marched into his office immediately, What had never
something that had never happened before in the history of the happened before in
school. But then, a teacher had never been attacked before, the history of the
Just a Minute!
nor had a teacher been suspected of murder! school?
Kavita poured out her story, not daring to look up because she was afraid of the
expression on Mr Ghosh’s face.
Then she heard a strange sound and all three children stared in disbelief. Both the
Principal and Mr Ghosh were laughing!
‘I thought I had gone over all the possibilities,’
said the Principal, ‘but this one escaped me!’ He
put his hand on Kavita’s shoulder and said,
‘You’re a brave girl to have carried on your work
as usual even when you were afraid, but I can
assure you, I would never have placed any of the
children in my care in the type of danger you
feared.
‘Mr Ghosh, sorry, Ranjan Roy, is a historian and
an archaeologist,’ the Principal said. ‘I called
him here because when we were digging the
foundation for the extension of your dormitory,
we came upon some bones and pottery, which
I thought could be an archaeological find.
We didn’t want the public to know that the
dormitory could have been built on some ancient
graveyard, so I maintained secrecy and asked Mr Roy to teach History to you under an
assumed name while he busied himself with the dig. He had done a splendid job and had
excavated Stone Age remains—not of a graveyard, I can assure you—under the building
site, as well as under the basement. Thankfully, disbelief: inability to accept that
no more digging needs to be done there and your something is true or real
dormitory building will remain intact.’ archaeologist: a person who studies
human history and prehistory through
the excavation of sites and the analysis of
It was a very subdued trio that attended the Assembly artefacts and other physical remains
the next day as the Principal made the news of the subdued trio: a group of three people who
have become quieter or less expressive
archaeological finds public. due to a certain situation or experience
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