His natural
timidity, and the tincture of European ways of thought he had gained
during his service in Calcutta, rendered him less subject than his
Mohammedan companions to the fatalism which rules the oriental mind. To
the Mohammedan what must be must be. Allah has appointed to every man his
lot; man is but as a cork on the stream of fate. Not even when a low,
half-strangled cry came to them across the water, out of the blackness
that brooded upon the harbor, did any of the four give sign of
excitement. The Babu started, and rose to his feet shivering; the others
still squatted, mute and motionless as statues of ebony, neither by
gesture nor murmur betraying their consciousness that at any moment, by
tocsin from the fort, a thousand fierce and relentless warriors might be
launched like sleuth hounds upon their track.
Meanwhile, what of Desmond and the Gujarati?
During the months Desmond had spent in Gheria he had made himself
familiar, as far as his opportunities allowed, with the construction of
the harbor and the manner of mooring the vessels there. He knew that the
gallivats of the Pirate's fleet, lashed together, lay about eighty yards
from the head of the jetty under the shelter of the fortress rock, which
protected them from the worst fury of the southwest monsoon. The grabs
lay on the other side of the jetty, some hundred and twenty yards towards
the river--except three vessels which were held constantly ready for sea
somewhat nearer the harbor mouth.
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