The plan is to set up the entire episode in Calcutta while a great religious feast is going on. Thousands of pilgrims crowd the city, there are processions all over, gurus are bathing in the river, crowds all around. Kim and Red Beard make their way through this setting. The enemy spies mingle with the crowd, follow them and try to get rid of them. The two of them have to meet with X21 in a very crowded spot, wearing something to recognize them which they discover is common to all the pilgrims who are crowding the square. They do not find X21 but discover that the enemy spies are setting up an ambush against an important religious figure in a temple or in a crowded square, then they are prepared to put the blame on the British. Kim and Red Beard thwart the plot at the last minute.