,
the Pirate did little trade. His vessels were employed mainly in dashing
out on insufficiently-convoyed merchantmen.

But the train of thought once started could not but be followed out. What
if he could seize a grab or gallivat in the harbor? To navigate such a
vessel required a party, men having some knowledge of the sea. How stood
his fellow prisoners in that respect? The Biluchis, tall wiry men, were
traders, and had several times, he knew, made the voyage from the Persian
Gulf to Surat. It was on one of these journeys that they had fallen into
Angria's hands. They might have picked up something of the simpler
details of navigation. The Mysoreans, being up-country men and
agriculturists, were not likely even to have seen the sea until they
became slaves of Angria. The Marathas would be loath to embark; they
belonged to a warrior race which had for centuries lived by raiding its
neighbors; but being forbidden by their religion to eat or drink at sea
they would never make good seamen. The Babu was a native of Bengal, and
the Bengalis were physically the weakest of the Indian peoples,
constitutionally timid, and unenterprising in matters demanding physical
courage. Desmond smiled as he thought of how his friend Surendra Nath
might comport himself in a storm.

There remained the Gujarati, and of his nautical capacity Desmond knew
nothing. But, mentioning the matter of seamanship casually to the Babu
one day, he learned that Fuzl Khan was a khalasi {sailor} from Cutch. He
had in him a strain of negro blood, derived probably from some Zanzibari
ancestor brought to Cutch as a slave. The men of the coast of Cutch were
the best sailors in India; and Fuzl Khan himself had spent a considerable
portion of his life at sea.

Thus reflecting on the qualities of his fellow captives, Desmond had
ruefully to acknowledge that they would make a poor crew to navigate a
grab or gallivat. Yet he could find no other, for Angria's system of
mixing the nationalities was cunningly devised to prevent any concerted
schemes. If the attempt was to be made at all, it must be made with the
men whom he knew intimately and with whom he had opportunities of
discussing a plan.

But he was at once faced by the question of the Gujarati's
trustworthiness. If there was any truth in Surendra Nath's suspicions, he
would be quite ready to betray his fellows; and if looks and manner were
any criterion, the suspicions were amply justi