"Well," he said, as he slowly and thoughtfully polished his gun-barrel,
"it might do, and it mightn't. Seems a rum dodge; but, anyhow, we might
try."
"I shall want you to help make the bridge," I says.
"All right, matey; but I don't, somehow, like leaving the beggars all
that ammunition."
And then he loaded his rifle very thoughtfully, but only to rouse up
directly after, for the mutineers began firing again; and Captain Dyer
giving the order, our men replied swift and fast at every black face
that showed itself for an instant.
That was a day: hot, so that everything you went near seemed burning.
The walls even sent forth a heat of their own; and if it hadn't been for
the chatties down below, we should have had to give up, for the tank was
now completely dried, and the flies buzzing about its mud-caked bottom.
But the women went round from man to man with water and biscuit, so that
no one left his post; and every time the black scoundrels tried to make
a lodgment near the gate, half were shot down, and the rest glad enough
to get back into shelter.
Towards that weary slow-coming evening, though, after we had beaten them
back--or, rather, after my brave comrades had beaten them back half a
score of times--I saw that something was up; and as soon as I saw what
that something was, I knew that it was all over, for our men were too
much cut up and disheartened for any more gallant sorties.
I've not said any more about the guns, only that we spiked them, and
left them standing in the market plain, about fifty yards from the
gates. I may tell you now, though, that the next morning they were
gone, and we forgot all about them till the night I'm talking about,
when they were dragged out again, with a lot of noise and shouting, from
a building in the far corner of the square.
We didn't want telling what that meant.
It was plain enough to all of us that the scoundrels had drilled out the
touch-holes again, and that during the night they would be planted, and
the first discharge would drive down all our defences, and leave us open
to a rush.
"We must try your plan, Smith," says Captain Dyer, with a quiet stern
look. "It is time now to evacuate the place."
Then he knelt down and took a look at the guns with his glass, and I
knew he must have been thinking of how he stood tied to the muzzle of
one of them, for he gave a sort of shudder as he closed his glass with a
snap.
Just then, Miss Ross came round with Lizzy and Mrs Bantem, carrying
wine and water, and I saw a sort of quiet triumph in Lieutenant Leigh's
face, as, avoiding Captain Dyer, Miss Ross went up to him, when he
half-beckoned to her, and stood by him like a slave, giving him bottle
and glass, and then standing by his side with her eyes fixed and
strange-looking; while, though he fought against it bravely, and tried
to be unmoved, Captain Dyer could not bear it, but walked away.
I was just then drinking some water given me by Lizzy, whose pale
troubled little face looked up so lovingly in mine that I felt
half-ashamed for me, a poor private, to be so happy--for I forgot my
wounds then--while my captain was in pain and suffering. And then it
was that it struck me that Captain Dyer was just in that state in which
men feel despairing, and go and do desperate things. For of course he
felt that as soon as he was out of the way, Miss Ross and the lieutenant
had made up matters. I felt that I ought before now to have told him
all about what I had heard, but I was in hopes that things would right
themselves, and always came to the conclusion that it was Miss Ross's
duty to have given the captain some explanation of her treatment;
anyhow, it did not seem to be mine; but when I saw the poor smitten
fellow go off like he did, I followed him softly till I came up with
him, my heart beating with fear.
There was nothing to fear, though: he had only gone up to the roof, and
when I came up with him he was evidently calculating about our escape,
for he finished off by pulling out his telescope, and looking right
across the plain, towards where there was a tank and a small station.
"I think that ought to be our way, Smith," he said. "We could stay
there for half an hour's rest, and then on again towards Wallahbad,
sending a couple of the stoutest men on for help. By the way, we'll try
and start a man off to-night, as soon as it's dark. But who will you
have to help you?"
"I should like to have Bigley, sir," I said.
"Will one be sufficient?"
"Quite, sir," I said; for I thought Measles and I could manage it
between us.
Half an hour after, Measles was busy at work, fetching up muskets, with
bayonets fixed, from down in the vault, and laying them in order on the
flat roof, taking care the while to keep out of sight; and I went to the
room where the women were, under Mrs Bantem's management, getting ready
for what was to come, for they had been told that we might leave the
place all at once.
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