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Updated: July 11, 2025
The Hindu, even more than the average human being elsewhere, is inclined to attach importance to might and bulk even to mere fat. If he sounded the Marathas, and, their fear of the Gujarati outweighing their inevitable distrust of him as a Firangi, they betrayed him to curry a little favor, there was no doubt that the fate both of himself and the Babu would instantly be decided.
Not till then did he explain what he required of them. The Gujarati seemed overcome by the selection of himself for this mission. "You are kind to me, sahib," he said. "I do not deserve it; but I will serve you to my life's end." There was in the man's tone a fervency which touched Desmond at the time, and which he had good cause afterwards to remember.
The man went rapidly towards the bows, and in a low tone hailed the lookout, whispering him a summons to join the Gujarati at the helm. The lookout, one of the Marathas, left his post; he came aft with the messenger, and both passing on the same side of the vessel, Desmond by dodging round the mast escaped their notice. At the best, the action of Fuzl Khan was a dereliction of duty; at the worst!
Unknown to Desmond, while he was holding this conversation with the Gujarati, the serang, crouching in apparent apathy on his bench, had really strained his ears to catch what was being said.
But they went about their task instantly without a word: Desmond's bold stand, and the swift overthrow of the big Gujarati, had turned the tide in his favor, and he thrilled with relief and keen pleasure that he was master of the situation. While the ringleader of the mutineers was being firmly bound, Desmond turned to Nanna and said: "Now, answer me at once. What is that place?"
"We are all brothers in misfortune; we ought to be as close knit as the strands of a rope. Here is our brother Fuzl Khan, the only man of his gang who did not try to escape, and see how he is treated! Could he be worse misused? Would not death be a boon? "Is it not so, Fuzl Khan?" The Gujarati assented with a passionate cry. "As for the rest of us, it is only a matter of time.
He took the wheel; the shade on the sea line gradually became more definite; and in the course of an hour they opened up a fort somewhat similar in appearance to that of Gheria. All the ship's company were now on deck, looking eagerly shorewards. "Do you know the place?" asked Desmond of the Gujarati unconcernedly. The man gazed at it intently for a minute or so.
Fuzl Khan, without doubt, would take care that he never had such a chance. Turning things over in his mind, and seeing no way out of his difficulty, he was at length summoned to relieve the Gujarati at the wheel. It was, he supposed, about four in the morning, and still pitch dark.
If he could only cause them to hold their fire for a time! Knowing that the Gujarati had a stentorian voice, and that a shout would carry upwards from the water to the parapet, in a flash Desmond saw the possibility of a ruse. He spoke to Fuzl Khan. The man at once turned to the fort, and with the full force of his lungs shouted: "Comrades, do not fire. We have caught them!"
None of the men, except possibly the Gujarati, had sufficient seamanship to detect this manoeuver; he had gone below, and when he came on deck again he could not tell what progress had been made during his absence.
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