[Hira Singh by Talbot Mundy]@TWC D-Link bookHira Singh CHAPTER I 30/76
To test them, we asked where Belgium was, and they did not know; but they swore it had ceased to be.
They advised us to mutiny and refuse to go on to our destruction. They ought to have been arrested, but we were enraged and drove them from the ship with blows.
We upset their little boat by hauling at the rope with which they had made it fast, and they were forced to swim for shore.
One of them was taken by a shark, which we considered an excellent omen, and the others were captured as they swam and taken ashore in custody. I think others must have visited the other ships with similar tales to tell, because after that, sahib, there was something such as I think the world never saw before that day.
In that great fleet of ships we were men of many creeds and tongues--Sikh, Muhammadan, Dorga, Gurkha (the Dogra and Gurkha be both Hindu, though of different kinds), Jat, Punjabi, Rajput, Guzerati, Pathan, Mahratta--who can recall how many! No one language could have sufficed to explain one thought to all of us--no, nor yet ten languages! No word passed that my ear caught.
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