"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.