“How will that do, Hossain?” asked Desmond with a smile.

The serang held up the oil lamp to inspect him.  With his other hand he slightly altered the set of the turban and rearranged the folds of the robe.

“That is excellent, sahib,” he said.  “A little more girth would perhaps have been better, but in the distance no one will notice.”

Then calling to Hubbo, he said that all was ready.  Hossain clambered through the hatchway, leaving Desmond concealed behind a large timber upright, supporting the deck.  As soon as the serang had reached his side, Hubbo called to the men on watch and said: 

“Hai, Ali, Chedi, come here!”

“Jo hukm {as ordered}!” replied one of the men.  Two of the three hurried aft, and at Hubbo’s bidding, swung down into the hold.  The serang ordered them to go towards the lamp.  They groped their way in that direction; Desmond sprang up through the hatchway; it was clapped down and firmly secured, and the subahdar with two-thirds of his crew was a prisoner in the hold.  The third man at the far end of the boat had not seen or heard anything of what had happened.

So far the plot had succeeded admirably.  Whatever order might reach the waiting vessels, it would not be given by the subahdar.  The question now was, how to prevent the men in charge of the vessels and the authorities in Tanna Fort from becoming suspicious.  The latter would not be difficult.  Manik Chand would gain nothing by blocking the fairway unless it were absolutely necessary to do so, and, in common with other of the Nawab’s lieutenants, he had an overweening confidence in the power of the forts to repel an attack from the English ships.  For this reason it was advisable to make the minds of the other men easy, and Desmond soon hit on a plan.

“You had better return to your sloop, Hubbo,” he said.  “Send a message to the men on the other vessels that I—­the subahdar, you know—­have made up my mind to allow one of the enemy’s ships to pass me before giving the signal.  I shall thus capture one at least, and it may be the admiral’s.”

Hubbo set off, and when he reached his own vessel he sent a boat with a message to each of the ships in turn.  Meanwhile, thinking the appearance of a petala alongside of the subahdar’s sloop might awaken suspicion or at least curiosity in the fort, Desmond decided to send it down the river in charge of Hossain.  He was thus left alone on deck with the subahdar’s third man.

For a time the man, standing far forward, was unaware of the striking change in the personality garbed in the subahdar’s clothes.  But glancing back at length, he started, looked a second time, and after a moment’s hesitation walked down the deck.

“Go back to your post,” said Desmond sternly, “and see that you keep a good lookout for the Firangi’s ships.”

The man salaamed and returned to the prow in manifest bewilderment.  More than once he looked back as he heard strange knockings from below.  Desmond only smiled.  If the sound was heard from the forts, it would be regarded merely as a sign that the preparations for sinking the vessel were not yet completed.