"Well, send the other fellow on shore; I will speak to the man."
The serang gave the second of the two Bengalis who had formed his original crew an errand on shore. Desmond beckoned up the new man.
"Are you willing to undertake a service of risk, for a big reward, Karim?" he asked.
The man hesitated.
"It will be worth a hundred rupees to you."
Karim's eyes sparkled; a hundred rupees represented a fortune to a man of his class; but he still hesitated.
"Am I to be alone?" he asked at length.
"No," said Desmond; "we shall be with you."
"Ji! Han! If the sahib"--the word slipped out unawares--"is to be there it is fixed. He is my father and mother: did he not save me from the river? I would serve him without reward."
"That is very well. All the same the reward shall be yours--to be paid to you if we succeed, to your family if we fail. For if we fail it will be our last day: they will certainly shoot us. There is time to draw back."