But as it turned out I guessed at least a little part of Ranjoor Singh's great plan and so achieved great credit that was useful later, although at the time I felt myself losing favor with them.
"Ranjoor Singh will bribe the captain of the ship to steam away before that regiment of Kurds can come on board," said I."So we shall have the ship at our mercy, provided we make no mistakes." That did not satisfy them, but it gave them something new to think about, and they settled down to wait in silence, as many as could crowding their backs against the deck-house and the rest suffering in the rain.

I would rather have heard them whispering, because I judged the silence to be due to low spirits.

I knew of nothing more to say to encourage them, and after a time their depression began to affect me also.

Rather than watch them, I watched the water, and more than once I saw something I did not recognize, that nevertheless caused my skin to tingle and my breath to come in jerks.

Sikh eyes are keen.
It was perhaps two hours before midnight when the long spell of firing along the water-front began and I knew that my eyes and the dark had not deceived me.