by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XV.
When the party met at dinner they were for a time somewhat silent, forall were exhausted by their hard work under a blazing sun, but theirspirits rose under their surroundings.
The native servants had laid the table with as scrupulous care asusual; and, except that there was no display of flowers, no change wasobservable.
All had dressed after the work was over, and the men were in whitedrill, and the ladies had, from custom, put on light evening gowns.
The cook had prepared an excellent dinner, and as the champagne wentround no stranger would have supposed that the party had met underunusual circumstances. The Doctor and the two subalterns wereunaffectedly gay, and as the rest all made an effort to be cheerful, thelanguor that had marked the commencement of the dinner soon wore off.
"Wilson and Richards are becoming quite sportsmen," the Doctor said."They have tried their hands at tigers but could hardly have expectedto take part in elephant shooting. They can't quite settle betweenthemselves as to which it was who sent the Rajah's elephant flying amongthe crowd. Both declare they aimed at that special beast. So, as thereis no deciding the point, we must consider the honor as divided."
"It was rather hard on us," Isobel said, "to be kept working belowinstead of being up there seeing what was going on. But I consider wequite did our full share towards the defense today. My hands are quitesore with sewing up the mouths of those rough bags. I think the chiefhonors that way lie with Mrs. Rintoul. I am sure she sewed morebags than any of us. I had no idea that you were such a worker, Mrs.Rintoul."
"I used to be a quick worker, Miss Hannay, till lately. I have nottouched a needle since I came out to India."
"I should recommend you to keep it up. Mrs. Rintoul," the Doctor said."It has done you more good than all my medicines. I don't believe I haveprescribed for you for the last month, and I haven't seen you looking sowell since you came out."
"I suppose I have not had time to feel ill, Doctor," Mrs. Rintoul said,with a slight smile; "all this has been a sort of tonic."
"And a very useful one, Mrs. Rintoul. We are all of us the better for alittle stirring up sometimes."
Captain Forster had, as usual, secured a place next to Isobel Hannay. Hehad been near her all day, carrying the bags as he filled them to her tosew up. Bathurst was sitting at the other end of the table, joining butlittle in the conversation.
"I thought Bathurst was going to faint again when the firing began, MissHannay," Captain Forster said, in a low voice. "It was quite funny tosee him give a little start each shot that was fired, and his face wasas white as my jacket. I never saw such a nervous fellow."
"You know he cannot help it, Captain Forster," Isobel said indignantly."I don't think it is right to make fun of him for what is a greatmisfortune."
"I am not making fun of him, Miss Hannay. I am pitying him."
"It did not sound like it," Isobel said. "I don't think you canunderstand it, Captain Forster; it must be terrible to be like that."
"I quite agree with you there. I know I should drown myself or put abullet through my head if I could not show ordinary courage with a lotof ladies going on working quietly round me."
"You must remember that Mr. Bathurst showed plenty of courage in goingout among the mutineers last night."
"Yes, he did that very well; but you see, he talks the language sothoroughly that, as he said himself, there was very little risk in it."
"I don't like you to talk so, Captain Forster," Isobel said quietly. "Ido not see much of Mr. Bathurst. I have not spoken to him half a dozentimes in the last month; but both my uncle and Dr. Wade have a highopinion of him, and do not consider that he should be personally blamedfor being nervous under fire. I feel very sorry for him, and would muchrather that you did not make remarks like that about him. We have allour weak points, and, no doubt, many of them are a good deal worse thana mere want of nerve."
"Your commands shall be obeyed, Miss Hannay. I did not know thatBathurst was a protege of the Major's as well as of the estimableDoctor, or I would have said nothing against him."
"I don't think Mr. Bathurst is the sort of man to be anyone's protege,Captain Forster," Isobel said coldly. "However, I think we had betterchange the subject."
This Captain Forster did easily and adroitly. He had no special feelingagainst Bathurst save a contempt for his weakness; and as he had met himbut once or twice at the Major's since he came to the station, he hadnot thought of him in the light of a rival.
Just as dinner was over Richards and one of the civilians came down fromthe terrace.
"I think that there is something up, Major. I can hear noises somewherenear where Mr. Hunter's bungalow was."
"What sort of noises, Richards?"
"There is a sort of murmur, as if there were a good many men there."
"Well, gentlemen, we had better go to our posts," the Major said."Doolan, please place your watch on the platforms by the wall. I willtake my party up onto the terrace. Doctor, will you bring up some ofthose rockets you made the other day? We must try and find out what theyare doing."
As soon as he gained the terrace with his party, the Major requestedeveryone to remain perfectly still, and going forward to the parapetlistened intently. In three or four minutes he returned to the others.
"There is a considerable body of men at work there," he said. "I canhear muffled sounds like digging, and once or twice a sharp click, asif a spade struck a stone. I am very much afraid they are throwing up abattery there. I was in hopes they would have begun in the open, becausewe could have commanded the approaches; but if they begin among thetrees, they can come in and out without our seeing them, and bring uptheir guns by the road without our being able to interfere with them.Mr. Bathurst, will you take down word to Captain Doolan to put his menon the platforms on that side. Tell him that I am going to throw up arocket, as I believe they are erecting a battery near Hunter's bungalow,and that his men are to be ready to give them a volley if they canmake them out. Tell them not to expose themselves too much; for if theyreally are at work there no doubt they have numbers of men posted in theshrubs all about to keep down our fire. Now, gentlemen, we will all liedown by the parapet. Take those spare rifles, and fire as quickly as youcan while the light of the rocket lasts. Now, Mr. Wilson, we will getyou to send them up. The rest of you had better get in the corner andstoop down behind the sandbags; you can lay your rifles on them, so asto be able to fire as soon as you have lit the second rocket."
The Doctor soon came up with the rockets; he had made three dozen theweek before, and a number of blue lights, for the special purpose ofdetecting any movement that the enemy might make at night.
"I will fire them myself," he said, as Wilson offered to take them. "Ihave had charge of the fireworks in a score of fetes and that sort ofthing, and am a pretty good hand at it. There, we will lean them againstthe sandbags. That is about it. Now, are you all ready, Major?"
"All ready!" replied the Major.
The Doctor placed the end of his lighted cheroot against the touchpaper, there was a momentary pause, then a rushing sound, and the rocketsoared high in the air, and then burst, throwing out four or five whitefireballs, which lit up clearly the spot they were watching.
"There they are!" the Major exclaimed; "just to the right of thebungalow; there are scores of them."
The rifles, both from the terrace and the platforms below, cracked outin rapid succession, and another rocket flew up into the air and burst.Before its light had faded out, each of the defenders had fired his fourshots. Shouts and cries from the direction in which they fired showedthat many of the bullets had told, whilst almost immediately a sharpfire broke out from the bushes round them.
"Don't mind the fellows in the shrubs," the Major said, "but keep upyour fire on the battery. We know its exact position now, though wecannot actually make them out."
"Let them wait while I go down and get a bit of phosphorus," the Doctorsaid. "I have some in the surgery. They will only thro
w away their firein the dark without it."
He soon returned, and when all the fore and back sights had been rubbedby the phosphorus the firing recommenced, and the Doctor sent Wilsondown with the phosphorus to the men on the platforms facing thethreatened point.
Bathurst was returning, after having given the message to CaptainDoolan, when Mrs. Hunter met him in the passage. She put her hand kindlyon his shoulder.
"Now, Mr. Bathurst, if you will take my advice you will remain quietlyhere. The Doctor tells me they are going to open fire, and it is not theleast use your going there exposing yourself to be shot when you knowthat you will be of no use. You showed us yesterday that you could beof use in other ways, and I have no doubt you will have opportunities ofdoing so again. I can assure you none of us will think any the worseof you for not being able to struggle against a nervous affliction thatgives you infinite pain. If they were attacking it would be different; Iknow you would be wanting to take your share then."
"Thank you, Mrs. Hunter," he said, "but I must go up. I grant that Ishall be of no use, but at least I will take any chance that the othersrun of being shot. A man does not flinch from a painful operation, and,whatever the pain, it has to be faced. I may get used to it in time; butwhether I do or not I must go through it, though I do not say it doesn'thurt."
At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above. Bathurst gave aviolent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he rushed past Mrs. Hunterand up the staircase to the terrace, when he staggered rather thanwalked forward to the parapet, and threw himself down beside two figureswho were in the act of firing.
"Is that you, Bathurst?" the Major's voice asked. "Mind, man, don't liftyour head above the sandbags in that way. There, you had best lie quiet;the natives have no idea of attacking, and it is of no use throwing awayvaluable ammunition by firing unless your hand is steady."
But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above the lineof sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder and forced himdown. He might have put his hands over his ears to deaden the sound--forin the darkness no one would have seen the action--but he would not doso, but with clenched teeth and quivering nerves lay there until theMajor said, "I fancy we have stopped them working. Now, Doctor, do you,Hunter, Bathurst, and Farquharson go and lie down for four hours, when Iwill send for you to take our places. Before you lie down will you tellDoolan to send half his party in? Of course you will lie down in yourclothes, ready to fall in at your posts at a moment's notice."
"Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they are doing.We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won't dare to work under ourfire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don't throw away a shot, ifthey are still working there."
The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives at thespot where they had been seen at work.
"I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close quartersas these. We must have played the mischief with them."
"All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there occasionally toshow them we have not forgotten them. But the principal thing will beto keep our ears open to see that they don't bring up ladders and try arush."
"I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would not haveset to work at the battery if they had any idea of trying to scale thewall with ladders. That will come later on; but I don't think you willbe troubled any more tonight, except by these fellows firing away fromthe bushes, and I should think they would get tired of wasting theirammunition soon. It is fortunate we brought all the spare ammunition inhere."
"Yes, they only had ten rounds of ball cartridge, and that must benearly used up by this time. They will have to make up their cartridgesin future, and cast their bullets, unless they can get a supply fromsome of the other mutineers."
"Well, you will send for us in four hours, Major?"
"You need not be afraid of my forgetting."
Dawn was just breaking when the relief were called up; the firing haddied away, and all was quiet.
"You will take command here, Rintoul," the Major said. "I should keepFarquharson up here, if I were you, and leave the Doctor and Bathurst tolook after things in general. I think, Doctor, it would be as well if weappointed Bathurst in charge of the general arrangements of the house.We have a good amount of stores, but the servants will waste them ifthey are not looked after. I should put them on rations, Bathurst; andthere might be regular rations of things served out for us too; thenit would fall in your province to see that the syces water and feed thehorses. You will examine the well regularly, and note whether there isany change in the look of the water. I think you will find plenty todo."
"Thank you, Major," Bathurst said. "I appreciate your kindness, andfor the present, at any rate, will gladly undertake the work of lookingafter the stores and servants; but there is one thing I have beenthinking of, and which I should like to speak to you about at once, ifyou could spare a minute or two before you turn in."
"What is that, Bathurst?"
"I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold this placefor a time, sooner or later we must either surrender or the place becarried by storm."
Major Hannay nodded.
"That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last grantus terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to escape or diefighting."
"It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our positiongrows more and more desperate they will close round us, and although wemight have possibly got through last night, our chances of doing so whenthey have once broken into the inclosure and begin to attack the houseitself are very slight. A few of us who can speak the language wellmight possibly in disguise get away, but it would be impossible for thebulk of us to do so."
"I quite see that, Bathurst."
"My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine; that is,to drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on steadily as faras we can. I should say that we have ten days or a fortnight before usbefore matters get to an extremity, and in that time we ought to be ableto get, working night and day, from fifty to a hundred yards beyond thewall, aiming at a clump of bushes. There is a large one in Farquharson'scompound, about a hundred yards off. Then, when things get to the worst,we can work upwards, and come out on a dark night. We might leave a longfuse burning in the magazine, so that there should be an explosion anhour or two after we had left. There is enough powder there to bring thehouse down, and the Sepoys might suppose that we had all been buried inthe ruins."
"I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you think,Doctor?"
"Capital," the Doctor said. "It is a light sandy soil, and we shouldbe able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many can worktogether, do you think, Bathurst?"
"I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if necessary, propthe roof, with some of the natives to carry out the earth. If we havethree shifts, each shift would go on twice in the twenty-four hours;that would be four hours on and eight hours off."
"Will you take charge of the operation, Bathurst?"
"With pleasure, Major."
"Very well then. You shall have with you Wilson and Richards and thethree youngest of the civilians, Saunderson, Austin, and Herbert. Yousix will be relieved from other duty except when the enemy threaten anattack. I will put down Saunderson and Austin together. Which of theothers would you like to have with you?"
"I will take Wilson, sir."
"Very well, then, Richards and Herbert will make the third party. Afterbreakfast we can pick out the twelve strongest of the natives. I willtell them that they have to work, but that they will be each paid halfa rupee a day in addition to their ordinary wages. Then you will give ageneral supervision to the work, Bathurst, in addition to your own sharein it?"
"Certainly, Major, I will take general charge of it."
So at breakfast the Major explained the plan agreed upon. The five menchosen at once expressed their willingness to undertake the work, a
ndthe offer of half a rupee extra a day was sufficient to induce twelve ofthe servants to volunteer for it. The Major went down to the cellarsand fixed upon the spot at which the work should begin; and Bathurst andWilson, taking some of the intrenching tools from the storeroom, beganto break through the wall without delay.
"I like this," Wilson said. "It is a thousand times better than sittingup there waiting till they choose to make an attack. How wide shall wemake it?"
"As narrow as we can for one to pass along at a time," Bathurst said."The narrower it is, the less trouble we shall have with the roof."
"But only one will be able to work at a time in that case."
"That will be quite enough,". Bathurst said. "It will be hot work andhard. We will relieve each other every five minutes or so."
A very short time sufficed to break through the wall.
"Thank goodness, it is earth," Wilson said, thrusting a crowbar throughthe opening as soon as it was made.
"I had no fear of its being rock, Wilson. If it had been, they would nothave taken the trouble to have walled the sides of the cellar. The soilis very deep all over here. The natives have to line their wells thirtyor forty feet down."
The enemy were quiet all day, but the garrison thought it likely that,warned by the lesson of the night before, they were erecting a batterysome distance farther back, masked by the trees, and that until it wasready to open fire they would know nothing about it.
"So you have turned miner, Mr. Wilson?" Isobel Hannay said to him as,after a change and a bath, he came in to get his lunch.
"I calculate I have lost half a stone in weight, Miss Hannay. If I wereto go on at this for a month or two there would be nothing left of me."
"And how far did you drive the hole?"
"Gallery, Miss Hannay; please call it a gallery, it sounds so muchbetter. We got in five yards. I should hardly have believed it possible,but Bathurst is a tremendous fellow to work. He uses a pick as if he hadbeen a sapper all his life. We kept the men pretty hard at work, I cantell you, carrying up the earth. Richards is at work now, and I bet himfive rupees that he and Herbert don't drive as far as we did."
"There is not much use in betting now, Mr. Wilson," Isobel said sadly.
"No, I suppose not, Miss Hannay; but it gives a sort of interest toone's work. I have blistered my hands horribly, but I suppose they willget hard in a day or two."
"I wish we could work at something," Isobel said. "Now that we havefinished with the bags and bandages, the time seems very long; the onlything there is to do is to play with the children and try to keep themgood; it is fortunate there is a bit of garden for them to play in."
"It is not much of a garden, Miss Hannay. We had something like a gardenwhen I was a boy at home; the governor's is a jolly old rectory, with asplendid garden. What fun we used to have there when I was a young one!I wonder what the dear old governor and mater would say if they knew thefix we were in here. You know, sometimes I think that Forster's planwas the best, and that it would be better to try and make a dash throughthem."
"We are in your way, Mr. Wilson; you wouldn't be able to do muchfighting if you had one of us clinging to you."
"I don't know, Miss Hannay," Wilson said quietly, "what my fightingpowers are, but I fancy if you were clinging to me I could cut my waythrough a good deal."
"I am sure you would do anything that anyone could do," the girl saidkindly; "but whatever you might feel, having another person behindyou could not but hamper you awfully. I would infinitely rather try toescape on foot, for then I should be relying on myself, while if I wasriding behind anyone, and we were pursued or attacked, I should feel allthe time I was destroying his chances, and that if it were not for mehe would get away. That would be terrible. I don't know whether we werewise to stay here instead of trying to escape at once; but as uncle andMr. Hunter and the others all thought it wiser to stay, I have no doubtit was; but I am quite sure that it could not have been a good plan togo off like that on horseback."
Another day passed quietly, and then during the night the watch heardthe sounds of blows with axes, and of falling trees.
"They are clearing the ground in front of their battery," the Major,who was on the watch with his party, said; "it will begin in earnesttomorrow morning. The sound came from just where we expected. It isabout in the same line as where they made their first attempt, but ahundred yards or so further back."
At daylight they saw that the trees and bushes had been leveled, and abattery, with embrazures for six guns, erected at a distance of aboutfour hundred yards from the house. More sandbags were at once brought upfrom below, and the parapet, on the side facing the battery, raised twofeet and doubled in thickness. The garrison were not disturbed while soengaged.
"Why the deuce don't the fellows begin?" Captain Forster saidimpatiently, as he stood looking over the parapet when the work wasfinished.
"I expect they are waiting for the Rajah and some of the principalZemindars to come down," replied the Major; "the guns are theirs, yousee, and will most likely be worked by their own followers. No doubtthey think they will knock the place to pieces in a few minutes.
"Listen! there is music; they are coming in grand state. Rintoul, willyou tell the workers in the mine to come up. By the way, who are at worknow?"
"Bathurst and Wilson, sir."
"Then tell Wilson to come up, and request Bathurst to go on with thegallery. Tell him I want that pushed forward as fast as possible, andthat one gun will not make much difference here. Request the ladies andchildren to go down into the storeroom for the present. I don't thinkthe balls will go through the wall, but it is as well to be on the safeside."
Captain Rintoul delivered his message to the ladies. They had alreadyheard that the battery had been unmasked and was ready to open fire, andlamps had been placed in the storeroom in readiness for them. Therewere pale faces among them, but their thoughts were of those on the roofrather than of themselves.
Mrs. Hunter took up the Bible she had been reading, and said, "Tellthem, Captain Rintoul, we shall be praying for them." The ladies wentinto the room that served as a nursery, and with the ayahs and otherfemale servants carried the children down into the storeroom.
"I would much rather be up there," Isobel said to Mrs. Doolan; "we couldload the muskets for them, and I don't think it would be anythinglike so bad if we could see what was going on as being cooped up belowfancying the worst all the time."
"I quite agree with you, but men never will get to understand women.Perhaps before we are done they will recognize the fact that we are nomore afraid than they are."
The music was heard approaching along the road where the bungalows hadstood. Presently a number of flags were raised in the battery amid agreat beating of drums. On the previous day a flagstaff had been erectedon the roof, and a Union Jack was run up in answer to the enemy'sdemonstration.
"A cheer for the old flag, lads," the Major said; and a hearty cheerbroke from the little party on the roof, where, with the exception ofBathurst, all the garrison were assembled. The cheer was answered by ayell from the natives not only in the battery, but from the gardens andinclosures round the house.
"Pay no attention to the fellows in the gardens," the Major said; "fireat their guns--they must expose themselves to load."
The men were kneeling behind the parapet, where the sandbags had beenso arranged that they could see through between those on the upper line,and thus fire without raising their heads above it.
"Shall we wait for them or fire first, Major?" the Doctor asked.
"I expect the guns are loaded and laid, Doctor; but if you see a headlooking along them, by all means take a shot at it. I wish we could seedown into the battery itself, but it is too high for that."
The Doctor lay looking along his rifle. Presently he fired, and as ifit had been the signal five cannon boomed out almost at the same moment,the other being fired a quarter of a minute later. Three of the shotstruck the house below the parapet, the others went over
head.
"I hit my man," the Doctor said, as he thrust another rifle through theloophole. "Now, we will see if we can keep them from loading."
Simultaneously with the roar of the cannon a rattle of musketry brokeout on three sides of the house, and a hail of bullets whistled over theheads of the defenders, who opened a steady fire at the embrasures ofthe guns. These had been run in, and the natives could be seen loadingthem. The Major examined the work through a pair of field glasses.
"You are doing well," he said presently; "I have seen several of themfall, and there is a lot of confusion among them; they will soon gettired of that game."
Slowly and irregularly the guns were run out again, and the fire of thedefenders was redoubled to prevent them from taking aim. Only one shothit the house this time, the others all going overhead. The fire of theenemy became slower and more irregular, and at the end of an hour ceasedalmost entirely.
"Doctor," the Major said, "I will get you and Farquharson to turn yourattention to some fellows there are in that high tree over there. Theycommand us completely, and many of their bullets have struck on theterrace behind us. It would not be safe to move across to the stairsnow. I think we have pretty well silenced the battery for the present.Here are my glasses. With them you can easily make out the fellows amongthe leaves."
"I see them," the Doctor said, handing the glasses to Farquharson; "wewill soon get them out of that. Now, Farquharson, you take that fellowout on the lower branch to the right; I will take the one close to thetrunk on the same branch."
Laying their rifles on the upper row of sandbags, the two men took asteady aim. They fired almost together, and two bodies were seen to fallfrom the tree.
"Well shot!" the Major exclaimed. "There are something like a dozen ofthem up there; but they will soon clear out if you keep that up."
"They are not more than two hundred yards away," the Doctor said, "andfiring from a rest we certainly ought not to miss them at that distance.Give me the glasses again."
A similar success attended the next two shots, and then a number offigures were seen hastily climbing down.
"Give them a volley, gentlemen," the Major said.
A dozen guns were fired, and three more men dropped, and an angry yellfrom the natives answered the shout of triumph from the garrison.
"Will you go down, Mr. Hunter, and tell the ladies that we have silencedthe guns for the present, and that no one has received a scratch? Now,let us see what damage their balls have effected."
This was found to be trifling. The stonework of the house was strong,and the guns were light. The stonework of one of the windows was broken,and two or three stones in the wall cracked. One ball had entered awindow, torn its way through two inner walls, and lay against the backwall.
"It is a four pound ball," the Major said, taking it up. "I fancy theguns are seven pounders. They have evidently no balls to fit, whichaccounts for the badness of their firing and the little damage they did;with so much windage the balls can have had but small velocity. Well,that is a satisfactory beginning, gentlemen; they will take a long timeto knock the place about our ears at this rate. Now we will see if wecannot clear them out of the gardens. Captain Doolan, will you take theglasses and watch the battery; if you see any movement about the guns,the fire will be reopened at once; until then all will devote theirattention to those fellows among the bushes; it is important to teachthem that they are not safe there, for a chance ball might come inbetween the sandbags. Each of you pick out a particular bush, and watchit till you see the exact position in which anyone firing from it mustbe in, and then try to silence him. Don't throw away a shot if you canhelp it. We have a good stock of ammunition, but it is as well not towaste it. I will leave you in command at present, Doolan."
Major Hannay then went down to the storeroom.
"I have come to relieve you from your confinement, ladies," he said. "Iam glad to say that we find their balls will not penetrate the wallsof the house alone, and there is therefore no fear whatever of theirpassing through them and the garden wall together; therefore, as longas the wall is intact, there is no reason whatever why you should notremain on the floor above."
There was a general exclamation of pleasure.
"That will be vastly better, uncle," Isobel said; "it is hateful beinghidden away down here when we have nothing to do but to listen to thefiring; we don't see why some of us should not go up on the terrace toload the rifles for you."
"Not at present, Isobel; we are not pressed yet. When it comes to a realattack it will be time to consider about that. I don't think any of uswould shoot straighter if there were women right up among us in danger."
"I don't at all see why it should be worse our being in danger than foryou men, Major," Mrs. Doolan said; "we have just as much at stake, andmore; and I warn you I shall organize a female mutiny if we are notallowed to help."
The Major laughed.
"Well, Mrs. Doolan, I shall have to convert this storeroom into aprison, and all who defy my authority will be immured here, so now youknow the consequence of disobedience."
"And has no one been hurt with all that firing, Major Hannay?" MaryHunter asked.
"A good many people have been hurt, Miss Hunter, but no one on our side.I fancy we must have made it very hot for those at the guns, and theDoctor and Mr. Farquharson have been teaching them not to climb trees.At present that firing you hear is against those who are hiding in thegardens."
An hour later the firing ceased altogether, the natives finding the fireof the defenders so deadly that they no longer dared, by discharging arifle, to show where they were hiding. They had drawn off from the moredistant clumps and bushes, but dared not try and crawl from those nearerthe house until after nightfall.
The next morning it was found that during the night the enemy had closedup their embrasures, leaving only openings sufficiently large for themuzzles of the guns to be thrust through, and soon after daybreak theyrenewed their fire. The Doctor and Mr. Farquharson alone remained onthe roof, and throughout the day they kept up a steady fire at theseopenings whenever the guns were withdrawn. Several of the sandbags wereknocked off the parapet during the course of the day, and a few shotfound their way through the walls of the upper story, but beyond thisno damage was done. The mining was kept up with great vigor, and thegallery advanced rapidly, the servants finding it very hard work toremove the earth as fast as the miners brought it down.
Captain Forster offered to go out with three others at night to tryand get into the battery and spike the guns, but Major Hannay would notpermit the attempt to be made.
"We know they have several other guns," he said, "and the risk would bealtogether too great, for there would be practically no chance of yourgetting back and being drawn up over the wall before you were overtaken,even if you succeeded in spiking the guns. There are probably a hundredmen sleeping in the battery, and it is likely they would have sentriesout in front of it. The loss of four men would seriously weaken thegarrison."
The next morning another battery to the left was unmasked, and onthe following day three guns were planted, under cover, so as to playagainst the gate. The first battery now concentrated its fire upon theouter wall, the new battery played upon the upper part of the house, andthe three guns kept up a steady fire at the gate.
There was little rest for the besieged now. It was a constant duelbetween their rifles and the guns, varied by their occasionally turningtheir attention to men who climbed trees, or who, from the roofs of somebuildings still standing, endeavored to keep down their fire.
Wilson had been released from his labors in the gallery, Bathurstundertaking to get down the earth single handed as fast as the servantscould remove it.
"I never saw such a fellow to work, Miss Hannay," Wilson said one day,when he was off duty, and happened to find her working alone at somebandages. "I know you don't like him, but he is a first rate fellow ifthere ever was one. It is unlucky for him being so nervous at the guns;but that is no fault of his, aft
er all, and I am sure in other things heis as cool as possible. Yesterday I was standing close to him, shovingthe earth back to the men as he got it down. Suddenly he shouted, 'Run,Wilson, the roof is coming down!' I could not help bolting a few yards,for the earth came pattering down as he spoke; then I looked round andsaw him standing there, by the light of the lamp, like those figuresyou see holding up pillars; I forget what they call them--catydigs, orsomething of that sort."
"Caryatides," Isobel put in.
"Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him, and he washolding it up with his arms. I should say that there must have beenhalf a ton of it, and he said, as quietly as possible, 'Get two of thoseshort poles, Wilson, and put up one on each side of me. I can hold it abit, but don't be longer than you can help about it.' I managed to shoveup the timber, so that he could slip out before it came down. It wouldhave crushed us both to a certainty if he had not held it up."
"Why do you say you know I don't like Mr. Bathurst?"
"I don't exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are the onlylady who does not chat with him. I don't think I have seen you speakto him since we have come in here. I am sorry, because I like him verymuch, and I don't care for Forster at all."
"What has Captain Forster to do with it?" Isobel asked, somewhatindignantly.
"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to bea good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and then after that Inever met him there except on that evening before he came in here. Nowyou know, Miss Hannay," he went on earnestly, "what I think about you. Ihave not been such an ass as to suppose I ever had a chance, though youknow I would lay down my life for you willingly; but I did not seem tomind Bathurst. I know he is an awfully good fellow, and would havemade you very happy; but I don't feel like that with Forster. There isnothing in the world that I should like better than to punch his head;and when I see that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogetherit makes me so savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipeoutside so as not to break out and have a row with him."
"You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You haveno right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I amconcerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of way,and I like you very much; but that gives you no right to say suchthings about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not because ofCaptain Forster but from another reason altogether; and certainly Ihave neither said nor done anything that would justify your saying thatCaptain Forster had cut Mr. Bathurst out. Even if I had, you ought notto have alluded to such a thing. I am not angry with you," she said,seeing how downcast he looked; "but you must not talk like that anymore; it would be wrong at any time; it is specially so now, when we areall shut up here together, and none can say what will happen to us."
"It seemed to me that was just the reason why I could speak about it,Miss Hannay. We may none of us get out of this fix we are in, and Ido think we ought all to be friends together now. Richards and I bothagreed that as it was certain neither of us had a chance of winning you,the next best thing was to see you and Bathurst come together. Well, nowall that's over, of course, but is it wrong for me to ask, how is it youhave come to dislike him?"
"But I don't dislike him, Mr. Wilson."
"Well, then, why do you go on as if you didn't like him?"
Isobel hesitated. From most men she would have considered the questionimpertinent, and would have resented it, but this frank faced boy meantno impertinence; he loved her in his honest way, and only wanted to seeher happy.
"I can't speak to him if he doesn't speak to me," she said desperately.
"No, of course not," he agreed; "but why shouldn't he speak to you? Youcan't have done anything to offend him except taking up with Forster."
"It is nothing to do with Captain Forster at all, Mr. Wilson; I--" andshe hesitated. "I said something at which he had the right to feel hurtand offended, and he has never given me any opportunity since of sayingthat I was sorry."
"I am sure you would not have said anything that he should have beenoffended about, Miss Hannay; it is not your nature, and I would notbelieve it whoever told me, not even yourself; so he must be in fault,and, of course, I have nothing more to say about it."
"He wasn't in fault at all, Mr. Wilson. I can't tell you what I said,but it was very wrong and thoughtless on my part, and I have been sorryfor it ever since; and he has a perfect right to be hurt and not tocome near me, especially as"--and she hesitated--"as I have acted badlysince, and he has no reason for supposing that I am sorry. And now youmust not ask me any more about it; I don't know why I have said as muchto you as I have, only I know I can trust you, and I like you very much,though I could never like you in the sort of way you would want me to. Iwish you didn't like me like that."
"Oh, never mind me," he said earnestly. "I am all right, Miss Hannay; Inever expected anything, you know, so I am not disappointed, and it hasbeen awfully good of you talking to me as you have, and not gettingmad with me for interfering. But I can hear them coming down from theterrace, and I must be off. I am on duty there, you know, now. Bathursthas undertaken double work in that hole. I didn't like it, really; itseemed mean to be getting out of the work and letting him do it all, buthe said that he liked work, and I really think he does. I am sure he isalways worrying himself because he can't take his share in the firing onthe roof; and when he is working he hasn't time to think about it. Whenhe told me that in future he would drive the tunnel our shift himself,he said, 'That will enable you to take your place on the roof, Wilson,and you must remember you are firing for both of us, so don't throwaway a shot.' It is awfully rough on him, isn't it? Well, goodby, MissHannay," and Wilson hurried off to the roof.