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attacking party would be wiped out before the shattered door was
reached. So they were coming on under cover. The thing was simply
enough contrived. They had cut down young palms and saplings and
lashed them together with tough creepers. Thus they had formed a
little palisade six feet high and fifteen feet along. Into the joints
everywhere they had thrust great feathery bushes of the wild plum,
completely concealing every sign of themselves. Six of the sturdy
little highland caterans were strung along behind the palisade. To
their muscles of iron it was the simplest thing in the world to swing
the barricade forward a step at a time, and behind them crept a score
of their comrades with _dah_ and musket ready for action.

"They'll march right up to us if we can't stop them in some fashion,"
cried Jack, and he fired his Mannlicher into the palisade. The others
followed his example, and for a few moments they searched the oncoming
mass of greenery with a close fire.

"There's something behind those bushes of wild plum," said Jim Dent.
"Can't you hear the bullets striking into wood? They've formed a big
shield of logs, and are pushing it forward."

Now that their advance was known, the Kachins gave up their silence.
The bearers began to shout to give each other the time and to make
their movements regular and swift. "Ai-ai-Ai!" they shouted. On the
last cry they all lifted and swung the barricade a step forward,
"Ai-ai-Ai!" On they came again, "Ai-ai-Ai!" Another swing of their
burden, and so they cut down the distance foot by foot, and the
blood-thirsty little men who crawled after them felt the edges of
their _dahs_ and promised to dull the shine of the great blades in the
blood of the English sahibs who had shot so many of their friends.

In the building, Jack and his comrades were at their wits' end to
know what to do in order to check this deadly advance.

"They're standing us off easily enough," cried Jack. "At the rate
they're coming, they'll be up to the door in a quarter of an hour, and
then they'll swarm straight in on us. These bullets are too light to
check them." Suddenly he turned on Dent, his bright eyes flashing.
"Jim, Jim!" he cried, "what are we thinking of? Didn't you pack a
heavy big-game rifle among the baggage?"

Jim Dent leapt as if he had been shot.

"Of course I did," he roared. "I put it in on chance of being useful
if we had trouble with tigers or a rogue elephant." He darted across
to t