"Is that you, sahib?" said a low voice.
"Yes."
He gave a great sigh of relief. The toni drew alongside, and soon five
men, with bundles, muskets, and the small heavy barrel, stood with
Desmond and the Gujarati on the deck of the gallivat.
Chapter 14: In which seven bold men light a big bonfire; and the Pirate
finds our hero a bad bargain.
Desmond's strongest feeling, as his companions stepped on board, was
wonder--wonder at the silence of the fort, the darkness that covered the
whole face of the country, the safety of himself and the men so lately
prisoners. What time had passed since they had left the shed he was
unable to guess; the moments had been so crowded that any reckoning was
impossible. But when, as he waited for the coming of the boat, his mind
ran over the incidents of the flight--the trussing of the sentry, the
wary approach to the bastion, the tragic fate of the sentinel there, the
stealthy creeping along the shore, the swim to the gallivats and all that
had happened since: as he recalled these things, he could not but wonder
that the alarm he dreaded had not already been given. But it was clear
that all was as yet undiscovered; and the plot had worked out so exactly
as planned that he hoped still for a breathing space to carry out his
enterprise to the end.
There was not a moment to be wasted. The instant the men were aboard
Desmond rapidly gave his orders. Fuzl Khan and one of the Mysoreans he
sent to carry the barrel to Angria's gallivat.
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