The only danger
likely to arise was from the weather. So far it was good; the sea was
calm, the sky was clear; but Desmond was enough of a seaman to know that,
being near the coast, the grab might at any moment, almost without
warning, be struck by a squall. He had to consider how best to divide up
his crew.
Including himself there were eleven men on board. Four of them were
strangers of whom he knew nothing; the six who had escaped with him were
known only as fellow prisoners.
To minimize any risk, he divided the crew into three watches. One
consisted of the Babu, the serang, and one of the Marathas from the
gallivat. Each of the others comprised a Mysorean, a Biluchi, and a
Maratha. Thus the strangers were separated as much as possible, and the
number of Marathas on duty was never in excess of the number of
fugitives; the steersman, Desmond or the Gujarati, as the case might be,
turned the balance.
The watch was set by means of the water clock found in the cabin. Desmond
arranged that he and Fuzl Khan should take alternate periods of eight
hours on and four off. The two matchlocks taken from the sentinels of the
fort and brought on board were loaded and placed on deck near the wheel.
None of the crew was armed save the Biluchis, who retained their knives.
Towards midday the wind dropped almost to a dead calm. This was
disappointing, for Desmond suspected that he was still within the area of
Angria's piratical operations--if not from Gheria, at any rate from some
of the more northerly strongholds not yet captured by the East India
Company or the Peshwa.
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