ecalled 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. He spoke to Fuzl Khan. The man at once turned to
the fort, and with the full force of his lungs shouted:

"Comrades, do not fire. We have caught them!"

Answering shouts came from the walls; the words were indistinguishable,
but the trick had succeeded, at any rate for the moment. No second shot
was at this time fired.

Desmond made full use of this period of grace. He recognized that the
gallivat, while short-handed, was too slow to make good the escape; the
grab, with the wind contrary, could never be got out of the harbor; the
only course open to him was to make use of the one to tow the other until
they reached the open sea. As soon as a hawser could be bent the grab was
taken in tow: its crew was impressed with the other prisoners as rowers,
under the charge of the Biluchis; and with Desmond at the helm of the
grab and the Gujarati steering the gallivat, the two vessels crept slowly
seawards. They went at a snail's pace, for it was nearly slack tide; and
slow as the progress of the gallivat had been before, it was much slower
now that the men had to move two vessels instead of one.

To Desmond, turning every now and again to watch the increasing glare
from the burning gallivats, it seemed that he scarcely advanced at all.
The town and the townward part of the fort were minute by minute becoming
more brightly illuminated; every detail around the blazing vessels could
be distinctly seen; and mingled with the myriad noises from the shore was
now the crackle of the flames, and the