We all knew that her cargo of arms and ammunition represented not a tenth of the great number reported to have been brought down to Jeb for shipment to the Makran coast, and everybody felt certain that sooner or later—probably sooner—more dhows would endeavour to run across. We were therefore very grateful when we did at last receive orders for patrolling between the two inlets. Two cutters belonging to the _Intrepid_, with a Maxim gun in the bows of each, had to patrol the creeks, keeping out of rifle shot from shore during the day and running close in at night. My chum, Baron Popple Opstein, commanded No. 1; and Evans, a little rat of a lieutenant, full of "go", but all nerves, No. 2. I was ordered to patrol from one to the other, backwards and forwards, on a line about six miles from the shore, during the daytime, and to close to within a mile of the shore at sunset. I was also ordered to communicate with both cutters each morning, as soon after daylight as possible, to receive reports of any happenings during the preceding night. Still farther out to sea the _Intrepid_ herself would patrol a line twenty miles long, also closing at dusk to within sighting distance of a Very’s light, should we want to communicate with her by firing one. All being ready, Evans, Popple Opstein, and I went aboard the cruiser, fully expecting that Commander Duckworth would give us a great deal of unnecessary advice, as though we were a lot of babies, not to be trusted a hundred yards from him; instead of which he simply asked us if we understood his written orders, and when we answered that we did, merely said: "Right you are! You can get away as soon as you like. Good night!" "He’s a splendid chap to serve under," Evans said in his nervous, hurried way of talking. "He’s always just like that." It was grand to be sent away entirely on one’s own, without being tied down this way and that before ever the conditions which might conceivably happen had happened. "Imagine anything like this in the good old Home Fleet!" my chum said as we parted. "We should be fathered and mothered day and night." So, an hour before the sun set, I took the two cutters in tow, dropped _Intrepid_ No. 1 close under Sheikh Hill, and steamed down to Kuh-i-Mubarak with No. 2, leaving her there in the mouth of the deep creek running up to Sudab, the village where I had seen the camels. "Good night and good luck!" I shouted, as I steamed off to sea to commence my own job. No one expected a dhow to slip across during those first days, because there were so few hours of darkness; but the moon, of course, was rising later each night, and every twenty-four hours increased our chances. However, nothing came in sight, and on the seventh day—a Thursday it was—according to my orders, I fetched _Intrepid_ No. 2 back to the anchorage off Sheikh Hill, and found the _Intrepid_ herself anchored there, with my chum’s boat already alongside.