ndering that
echoed through the dome like the reverberations of an earthquake. It
was punctuated by the screams of women. The prisoners changed their
attitude, and eyed Brown and the Rajput with an air of truculence again.

"They'll be up this causeway in a minute, sahib! Listen. There! They've
seen the dead bodies that you tossed over. Better it had been to keep
them up here for a while."

"Never mind! We can hold this causeway until morning! Men! Take
close order. Line up at the causeway-entrance. Kneel. Prepare for
volley-firing. Now, let 'em come!"

"I am for making an immediate escape, sahib!"

"Go ahead!" said Brown, almost dreamily.

He seemed to be thinking hard on some other subject as he spoke.

"Sahib, one of the women there--she who is maid to the other two--asked
me where Bill Brown might be! She swore to me that she had recognized
his voice when the trapdoor opened up above her. Are you not Bill
Brown?"

"Yes, I'm William Brown!"

"Her name, she says, is Emmett!"

"You don't surprise me, Juggut Khan! I thought I had recognized her
voice. It seemed strangely familiar. Well--here come the rebels up the
causeway. See? They're at the bottom now with lanterns! Ready, men!"

There came the answering click of breech-bolts, and a little rustling as
each man eased his position, and laid his elbow on his knee.

"Can you find your way out through the way we came, Juggut Khan?"

"Of course I can!"

"Are all the women on the floor?"

"Three women and the child."

"Can you close the trap-door again?"

"Surely! It is only opening it that is difficult."

"Then close it before you go. I've got a reason! Send one of my men up
here with a lantern--one of those that are burning in the magazine. I
want to signal."

"Very well, sahib!"

"Then take the women, with four of my men to help them walk, and get out
as quickly as you can by the way we all came in. Wait for the rest of
my men when you reach the opening in the outer wall, and when they
reach you allot two men to carry each woman, and run--the whole lot of
you--for the army over yonder. One of the women will object. She will
want to see me first. Use force, if necessary!"

"Are you, then, not coming, sahib?"

"I have another plan. Here they come! Hurry now, be off with the women!
Volley-firing--ready--present!"

Pattering footsteps sounded on the causeway, and a little crowd of
nearly doubled figures came up it at a run.

"Fire!"

The voll