Desmond decided to take a bold course.  Official news not having arrived, he might seize the moment to present his dastaks and get away before the customs officers found any pretext for stopping him.  Everything happened as he hoped.  He met with no more difficulty than at Path, and informing the official who examined the dastaks that he would drop down to Amboa before tying up for the night, he drew out again into the stream.

He spent some time in consultation with the serang.  In a rather desolate reach of the Hugli, he learned that in the middle of the stream there was a small island, uninhabited save by teal and other waterfowl, and not known to be the haunt of tigers or other beasts of prey.  Reaching this islet about ten o’clock at night, when all river traffic had ceased, he rowed in, and landed the Armenian with his crews.

“I thank you for your company, Coja Solomon,” he said blandly.  ’We must here part, to my regret, for I should like to have the pleasure of witnessing your meeting with Mr. Merriman.  The nights are warm, and you will, I am sure, be quite comfortable till the morning, when no doubt a passing boat will take you off and convey you back to your business at Cossimbazar.”

“I will not stay here,” protested the Armenian, his face livid with anger.

“Believe me, you have no choice.  Let me remind you that had you behaved honestly there would have been no reason for putting you to the inconvenience of this tiring journey.  You have brought it on yourself.”

Coja Solomon sullenly went up the shore.  Desmond then paid the men handsomely:  they had indeed worked well, and they were abundantly satisfied with the hire they received.

Leaving Coja Solomon to his bitter reflections, Desmond dropped down to Santipur, arriving there about two o’clock in the morning.  Just before dawn ten hackeris, each yoked with two oxen, drew up near the Company’s ghat.  They were accompanied by a crowd of the inhabitants, lively with curiosity about the engagement of so many vehicles.  The gumashta came up with the first cart, his face clouded with anxiety.  He recognized the Babu at once, and said that while he had fulfilled the order he had received on Mr. Merriman’s behalf, he had done it in fear and trembling.  The whole country knew that Cossimbazar Fort was in possession of the Nawab, and, more than that, the Nawab had on the previous day set out with an immense army for Calcutta.  Santipur was not on the high road, and the Company was respected there; yet the gumashta feared the people would make an attack on the party if they suspected that they carried goods belonging to an Englishman.

Hitherto Desmond had kept himself in the background.  But now he had an idea inspired by confidence in his costume.  Introducing himself to the gumashta, he asked him to give out that the party was in command of a Firangi in the service of the Nawab, and was conveying part of the Nawab’s private equipage in advance to Baraset, a few miles north of Calcutta, there to await the arrival of the main army.  To make the imposition more effective, he called for the lambadar of the village and ordered him in the Nawab’s name to despatch a flotilla of twenty-five wollacks {barges} to Cutwa to convey the official baggage.