I found him talking to the lined up men in no gentle manner.  As I drew nearer I heard him say the word “Wassmuss.”  Then I heard a trooper ask him, “Where are we?” And he answered, “Ye stand on Asia!” That was the first intimation I received that we were in Asia, and I felt suddenly lonely, for Asia is wondrously big, sahib.

Whatever Ranjoor Singh had been saying to the men he had them back under his thumb for the time being; for when I told him of my discovery of the hut he called them to attention, turned them to the right, and marched them off as obedient as a machine, Tugendheim following like a man in a dream between his four guards and struggling now and then to loose the wet thongs that were beginning to cut into his wrists.  He had not been trussed over-tenderly, but I noticed that Ranjoor Singh had ordered the gag removed.

The hut stood alone, clear on all four sides, and after he had looked at it, Ranjoor Singh made the men line up facing the door, with himself and me and Tugendheim between them and the hut.  Presently he pushed Tugendheim into the hut, and he bade me stand in the door to watch him.

“Now the man who wishes to ask questions may,” he said then, and there was a long silence, for I suppose none wished to be accused of impudence and perhaps made an example for the rest.  Besides, they were too curious to know what his next intention might be to care to offend him.  So I, seeing that he wished them to speak, and conceiving that to be part of his plan for establishing good feeling, asked the first question—­the first that came into my head.

“What shall we do with this Tugendheim?” said I.

“That I will show you presently,” said he.  “Who else has a question to ask?” And again there was silence, save for the rain and the grinding and pounding on the beach.

Then Gooja Singh made bold, as he usually did when he judged the risk not too great.  He was behind the men, which gave him greater courage; and it suited him well to have to raise his voice, because the men might suppose that to be due to insolence, whereas Ranjoor Singh must ascribe it to necessity.  Well I knew the method of Gooja Singh’s reasoning, and I knitted my fists in a frenzy of fear lest he say the wrong word and start trouble.  Yet I need not have worried.  I observed that Ranjoor Singh seemed not disturbed at all, and he knew Gooja Singh as well as I.

“It seems for the time being that we have given the slip to both Turks and Germans,” said Gooja Singh; and Ranjoor Singh said, “Aye!  For the time being!”

“And we truly stand on Asia?” he asked.

“Aye!” said Ranjoor Singh,

“Then why did we not put those Turks ashore, and steam away in their ship toward Gallipoli to join our friends?” said he.

“Partly because of submarines,” said Ranjoor Singh, “and partly because of gun-fire.  Partly because of mines floating in the water, and partly again from lack of coal.  The bunkers were about empty.  It was because there was so little coal that the Germans trusted us alone on board.”