and hauled the boat high and dry, and as they did
that I saw the ship's lantern disappear altogether.

Ranjoor Singh went straight to the Turkish captain. "Your money,"
said he, speaking in English slowly--I wonder, sahib, oh, I have
wondered a thousand times in what medley of tongues strange to all
of them they had done their bargaining!--"Your money," said he, "is
in the boat in which I came. Take it, and take your men, and go!"

The captain and his crew said nothing, but got into the boats and
pushed away. One of the boats was overturned in the surf, and there
they left it, the sailors scrambling into the other boats. They were
out of sight and sound in two minutes. Then Ranjoor Singh turned to
me.

"Send and gather fire-wood!" he ordered.

"Where shall dry wood be in all this rain?" said I.

"Search!" said he.

"Sahib," said I, "a fire would only betray our whereabouts."

"Are you deaf?" said he.

"Nay!" I said.

"Then obey!" said he. So I took twenty men, and we went stumbling
through rain and darkness, hunting for what none of us believed was
anywhere. Yet within fifteen minutes we found a hut whose roof was
intact, and therefore whose floor and inner parts were dry enough.
It was a little hut, of the length of perhaps the height of four
men, and the breadth of the height of three--a man and a half high
from floor to roof-beam. It was unoccupied, but there was straw at
one end--dry straw, on which doubtless guards had slept. I left the
men standing there and went and told Ranjoor Singh.

I found him talking to the lined up men in no gentle manner. As I
drew nearer I heard him say the word "Wassmuss." Then I heard a
trooper ask him, "Where are we?" And he answered, "Ye stand on
Asia!" That was the first intimation I received that we were in
Asia, and I felt suddenly lonely, for Asia is wondrously big, sahib.

Whatever Ranjoor Singh had been saying to the men he had them back
under his thumb for the time being; for when I told him of my
discovery of the hut he called them to attention, turned them to the
right, and marched them off as obedient as a machine, Tugendheim
following like a man in a dream between his four guards and
struggling now and then to loose the wet thongs that were beginning
to cut into his wrists. He had not been trussed over-tenderly, but I
noticed that Ranjoor Singh had ordered the gag removed.

The hut stood alone, clear on all four sides, and after he had
looked at it, Ranjoo