"Listen! Obey! And give me no back answers!" "Sahib," said I, "I am thy man!" But he answered nothing to that.
"Pick the four most dependable men," he said, "and bid them enter that cabin and gag and bind Tugendheim.

Bid them make no noise and see to it that he makes none, but let them do him no injury, for we shall need him presently! When that is done, come back to me here!" So I left him at once, he standing as I had done, staring at the water, although I thought perhaps there was more purpose in his gaze than there had been in mine.
I chose four men and led them aside, they greatly wondering.
"There is work to be done," said I, "that calls for true ones!" "Such men be we!" said all four together.
"That is why I picked you from among the rest!" said I, and they were well pleased at that.

Then I gave them their orders.
"Who bids us do this ?" they demanded.
"I!" said I."Bind and gag Tugendheim, and we have Ranjoor Singh committed.

He gave the order, and I bid you obey it! How can he be false to us and true to the Germans, with a gagged German prisoner on his hands ?" They saw the point of that.

"But what if we are discovered too soon ?" said they.
"What if we are sunk before dawn by a British submarine!" said I.
"We will swim when we find ourselves in water! For the present, bind and gag Tugendheim!" So they went and stalked Tugendheim, the German, who had been drinking from a little pocket flask.