away it was wet. He
could not leave the wheel to see what damage had been done to the ship,
still less to examine his own injury.

He was alone on board. Every other man was straining at his oar in the
gallivat. He felt the blood trickling down his face; from time to time he
wiped it away with the loose end of his dhoti. Then he forgot his wound,
for two more shots within a few seconds of each other struck the grab
forward. Clearly the gunners were aiming at his vessel, which, being
larger than the gallivat, and higher in the water, presented an easier
mark. Where had she been hit? If below the waterline, before many minutes
were past she would be sinking under him.

Yet he could do nothing. He dared not order the men in the gallivat to
cease rowing; he dared not leave the helm of the grab; he could but wait
and hold his post. It would not be long before he knew whether the vessel
had been seriously hit: if it was so, then would be the time to cast off
the tow rope.

The gallivat, at any rate, appeared not to have suffered. Desmond was
beginning to think he was out of the wood when he heard a crash in front,
followed by a still more ominous sound. The motion of the gallivat at
once ceased, and, the grab slowly creeping up to her, Desmond had to put
his helm hard up to avoid a collision. He could hear the Gujarati raging
and storming on deck, and cries as of men in pain; then, as the grab came
abreast of the smaller vessel, he became aware of what had happened. The
mainmast of the gallivat had been struck by a shot and had gone by the
board.

Desmond hailed the Gujarati and told him to get three or four men to cut
away the wreckage.

"Keep an eye on the prisoners," he added, feeling that this was perhaps
the most serious element in a serious situation; for with round shot
flying about the vessel it might well have seemed to the unhappy men on
the rowing benches that mutiny was the lesser of two risks. But the
rowers were cowed by the presence of the two Biluchis armed with their
terrible knives, and they crowded in dumb helplessness while the tangled
rigging was cut away.

"Is any one hurt?" asked Desmond.

"One of the rowers has a broken arm, sahib," replied Shaik Abdullah.

"And I have a contusion of the nose," said the Babu lugubriously.

It was impossible to do anything for the sufferers at the moment. It was
still touch-and-go with the whole party. The shots from the fort were now
beginning to fall short