The Shahbandar examined Hawksworth with curiosity. His face recalled hard desert nomad blood, but now it was softened with ease, plump and moustachioed. He wore gold earrings, and he was barefoot. "Favor me by coming closer. I must see this _feringhi _captain who brings such turmoil to our waters." He turned and cursed the servant as the hookah continued to gurgle inconclusively. Then a roll of smoke burst through the tube and the Shahbandar's eyes mellowed as he drew it deeply into his lungs. He held the smoke for a moment while he gazed quizzically at Hawksworth, squinting as though the air between them were opaque. "They tell me you are English. May I have the pleasure to know your name?" "I'm Brian Hawksworth, captain of the frigate _Discovery_. May I also have the privilege of an introduction." "I will stand before Allah as Mirza Nuruddin." He again drew deeply on the hookah. "But here I am the Shahbandar." He exhaled a cloud and examined Hawksworth. "Your ship and another were in our bay yesterday. I am told they weighed anchor at nightfall. Do English vessels customarily sail without their captain?" "When they have reason to do so." Hawksworth fixed him squarely, wondering if he was really almost blind or if he merely wanted to appear so. "And what, Captain . . . Hawksworth, brings you and your contentious warships to our port? It is not often our friends the Portuguese permit their fellow Christians to visit us." "Our ships are traders of England's East India Company." "Do not squander my time telling me what I already know." The Shahbandar suddenly seemed to erupt. "They have never before come to India. Why are you here now?" Hawksworth sensed suddenly that the Shahbandar had been merely toying with him. That he knew full well why they had come and had already decided what to do. He recalled the words of Karim, declaring the Shahbandar had his own private system of spies. "We are here for the same reason we have visited the islands. To trade the goods of Europe." "But we already do trade with Europeans. The Portuguese. Who also protect our seas." "Have you found profit in it?" "Enough. But it is not your place to question me, Captain Hawksworth." "Then you may wish to profit through English trade as well." "And your merchants, I assume, also expect to profit here." "That's the normal basis of trade." Hawksworth shifted, easing his leg. The Shahbandar glanced downward, but without removing his lips from the tube of the hookah. "I notice you have a wound, Captain Hawksworth. Yours would seem a perilous profession." "It's sometimes even more perilous for our enemies." "I presume you mean the Portuguese." The Shahbandar cursed the servant anew and called for a new taper to fire the hookah. "But their perils are over. Yours have only begun. Surely you do not expect they will allow you to trade here." "Trade here is a matter between England and India. It does not involve the Portugals."