e shackled."

Desmond thought over this piece of information. He had noticed that the
Gujarati was left much alone by the others. They were outwardly civil
enough, but they rarely spoke to him of their own accord, and sometimes
they would break off in a conversation if he appeared interested. Desmond
had put this down to the man's temper; he was a sullen fellow, with a
perpetually hangdog look, occasionally breaking out in paroxysms of
violence which cost him many a scourging from the overseer's merciless
rattan. But the attitude of his fellow prisoner was more easily explained
if the Babu's hint was well founded. They feared him.

Yet, if he had indeed betrayed his comrades, he had gained little by his
treachery. He was no favorite with the officers of the yard. They kept
him hard at work, and seemed to take a delight in harrying him. More than
once, unjustly, as it appeared to Desmond, he had made acquaintance with
the punishment tank. In his dealings with his fellows he was morose and
offensive. A man of great physical strength, he was a match for any two
of his shed companions save the Biluchis, who, though individually
weaker, retained something of the spirit of their race and made common
cause against him. The rest he bullied, and none more than the Bengali,
whose weaklier constitution spared him the hard manual work of the yard,
but whose timidity invited aggression.

Now that the subject which constantly occupied his thoughts had been
mooted, Desmond found himself more eagerly striving to find a solution of
the problem presented by the idea of escape. At all hours of the day, and
often when he lay in sleepless discomfort at night, his active mind
recurred to the one absorbing matter: how to regain his freedom. He had
already canvassed the possibilities of escape by land, only to dismiss
the idea as utterly impracticable; for even could he elude the vigilance
of the sentries he could not pass as a native, and the perils besetting
an Englishman were not confined to Angria's territory.

But how stood the chances of escape by sea? Could he stow himself on
board a grab or gallivat, and try to swim ashore when near some friendly
port? He put the suggestion from him as absurd. Supposing he succeeded in
stowing himself on an outgoing vessel, how could he know when he was near
a friendly port without risking almost certain discovery? Besides, except
in such rare cases as the visit of an interloper like the Good Intent