Desmond and his six companions now had fourteen prisoners on their hands,
and in ordinary circumstances the disproportion would have been fatal.
But the captives, besides having been deprived of all means of offense,
had no exact knowledge of the exact number of men who had trapped them.
Their fears and the darkness had a magnifying effect, and, like Falstaff,
they would have sworn that their enemies were ten times as many as they
actually were.
So deeply engrossed had Desmond been in the capture of the grab that he
had forgotten the one serious danger that threatened to turn the tide of
accident, hitherto so favorable, completely against him. He had forgotten
the burning gallivats. But now his attention was recalled to them in a
very unpleasant and forcible way. There was a deafening report, as it
seemed from a few yards' distance, followed immediately by a splash in
the water just ahead. The glare of the burning vessels was dimly lighting
up almost the whole harbor mouth, and the runaway gallivat, now clearly
seen from the fort, had become a target for its guns. The gunners had
been specially exercised of late in anticipation of an attack from
Bombay, and Desmond knew that in his slow-going vessel he could not hope
to draw out of range in time to escape a battering.
But his gallivat was among the grabs. At this moment it must be
impossible for the gunners to distinguish between the runaway and the
loyal vessels. 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.
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