“Yet, why let the Turks have the steamer?” asked Gooja Singh, bound, now that he was started, to prove himself in the right.  “They will float about until daylight and then send signals.  Then will come Turks and Germans!”

“Nay!” said Ranjoor Singh.  “No so, for I sank the steamer!  I myself let the sea into her hold!”

Gooja Singh was silent for about a minute, and although it was dark and I could not see him.  I knew exactly the expression of his face—­ wrinkled thus, and with the lower lip thrust out, so!

“Any more questions?” asked Ranjoor Singh, and by that time Gooja Singh had thought again.  This time he seemed to think he had an unanswerable one, for his voice was full of insolence.

“Then how comes it,” said he, “that you turned those Turks loose in their small boats when we might have kept them with us for hostages?  Now they will row to the land and set their masters on our tracks!  Within an hour or two we shall all be prisoners again!  Tell us why!”

“For one thing,” said Ranjoor Singh, without any resentment in his voice that I could detect (although that was no sign!), “I had to make some sort of bargain with them, and having made it I must keep it.  The money with which I bribed the captain and his mate would have been of little use to them unless I allowed them life and liberty as well.”

“But they will give the alarm and cause us to be followed!” shouted Gooja Singh, his voice rising louder with each word.

“Nay, I think not!” said Ranjoor Singh, as calmly as ever.  “In the first place, I have a written receipt from captain and mate for our money, stating the reason for which it was paid; if we were made prisoners again, that paper would be found in my possession and it might go ill with those Turks.  In the second place, they will wish to save their faces.  In the third place, they must explain the loss of their steamer.  So they will say the steamer was sunk by a submarine, and that they got away in the boats and watched us drown.  The crew will bear out what the captain and the mate say, partly from fear, partly because that is the custom of the country, but chiefly because they will receive a small share of the bribe.  Let us hope they get back safely—­for their story will prevent pursuit!”

For about two minutes again there was silence, and then Gooja Singh called out:  “Why did you not make them take us to Gallipoli?”

“There was not enough coal!” said I, but Ranjoor Singh made a gesture to me of impatience.

“The Germans wished us to go to Gallipoli,” said he, “and I have noticed that whatever they may desire is expressly intended for their advantage and not ours.  In Gallipoli they would have kept us out of range at the rear, and presently they would have caused a picture of us to be taken serving among the Turkish army.  That they would have published broadcast.  After that I have no idea what would have happened to us, except that I am sure we should never have got near enough to the British lines to make good our escape.  We must find another way than that!”