gg, barber; Walter Smith, shopman;
Reginald Ladon Gurr, Head of a Department--and whose right it was to
sleep so long as two of the six watched.

* * * * *

"Let there be no mistake then," said the burly Havildar Nazir Ali Khan
to one Hidayetulla, squat thick-set Pathan, "at the first shot from the
hill your party, ceasing to crawl, will rush upon the picket, and mine
will swoop upon the gate bearing the tins of kerosene oil, the faggots
and the brushwood. All those with guns will fire at the walls save the
Border State company who will reserve their fire till the gate is opened
or burnt down. The dogs within must either open it to extinguish the
fire, or it must burn. On their volley, all others will charge for the
gate with knife and sword. Do thou win the hill-top and keep up a heavy
fire into the Prison. There will be Lee-Metford rifles and ammunition
there ready for thy taking--ha-ha!"

"And if we are seen and fired on as we stalk the picket on the hill?"

"Then their first shot will, as I said, be the signal for your rush and
ours. Understandest thou?"

"I understand. 'Tis a good plan of the blind Moulvie's."

"Aye! He can _plan_,--and talk. We can go and be shot, and be blamed if
his plans miscarry," grumbled the big man, and added, "How many have
you?"

"About forty," was the reply, "and all Khost men save seven, of whom
four are Afghans of Cabul, two are Punjabis, and one a Sikh."

"Is it three hours since the treasure started? That was the time the
Moulvie fixed for the attack."

"It must be, perhaps," replied the other. "Let us begin. But what if the
hill be not held, or if we capture it with the knife, none firing a
shot?"

"Then get into good position, make little sungars where necessary, and,
all being ready, open fire into the Prison compound.... At the first
shot--whatever be thy luck--we shall rush in our thousands down the
Sudder Bazaar, West Street and Edward Street, and do as planned. Are thy
forty beneath the trees beyond the hill?"

"They are. I join them now," and the squat broad-shouldered figure
rolled away with swinging, swaggering gait.

Suddenly Private Augustus Grobble started from deep sleep to acutest
wide-eyed consciousness and was aware of a man's face peering over a
boulder not twenty yards from him--a hideous hairy face, surmounted by a
close-fitting skull-cap that shone greasy in the moonlight. The blood of
Augustus froze in his veins, he