He had just directed one of the Biluchis to
cast loose the lashings between the vessels, and was already
congratulating himself that the main difficulties of his venture were
past, when he suddenly heard shouts from the direction of the fort.
Immediately afterwards the deep notes of the huge gong kept in Angria's
courtyard boomed and reverberated across the harbor, echoed at brief
intervals by the strident clanging of several smaller gongs in the town.
Barely had the first sound reached his ears when he saw a light flash
forth from the outermost bastion; to the left of it appeared a second;
and soon, along the whole face of the fort, in the dockyard, in the town,
innumerable lights dotted the blackness, some stationary, others moving
this way and that. Now cries were heard from all sides, growing in volume
until the sound was as of some gigantic hornet's nest awakened into angry
activity. To the clangor of gongs was added the blare of trumpets, and
from the walls of the fort and palace, from the hill beyond, from every
cliff along the shore, echoed and re-echoed an immense and furious din.
For a few seconds Desmond stood as if fascinated, watching the
transformation which the hundreds of twinkling lights had caused. Then he
pulled himself together, and with a word to the Biluchi who had loosed
the lashings, bidding him hold on to the next gallivat, he sprang to the
side of this vessel, and hurried towards Angria's. Fuzl Khan had not
returned; Desmond almost feared that some mishap had befallen the man.
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