ll his property and, as he believed, a hoard of treasure also. Ahmed
was considering how best to prepare for a fierce assault when he heard
loud shouts from below. Running to the window from which Minghal had
looked down on the garden, he saw that several of the enemy had mounted
the wall, on the roof of the colonnade, and that some had dropped to the
ground on the inner side. But he saw in the same moment that there was
no reason for anxiety as to the safety of the back of the house. There
was a crowd of about thirty or forty men in the lane outside, but only
about half-a-dozen had had the courage to make the escalade of the wall.
If the assault had been at all general, the little party inside the
garden would have stood no chance; but dropping one by one, and at
irregular intervals, within easy reach of the men underneath the
colonnade, the besiegers had but a short shrift. Before he could recover
himself each man was beset by the man nearest to him, who dashed from
beneath the cover of the colonnade and attacked him with his sword. The
defenders wisely reserved their ammunition. A man dropping from a height
required a fraction of a second to recover himself. In each case, before
recovery was possible, one or other of the men had cut his victim down.

Seeing the fate of their companions, the men on the top of the colonnade
hesitated to make the jump. They felt themselves, however, secure from
attack, and called to their comrades in the lane to join them. A few
began to scramble up, but, although the position of the men beneath the
colonnade was not visible to the attackers on top, the men themselves
could see their enemy through the cracks in the roof where the wood had
warped. One of the Englishmen, firing upwards through the roof, disposed
of a mutineer, who rolled down the slope of the colonnade into the
garden. His comrades, fearing a like fate, hastily vacated the roof and
dropped down into the lane, dashing the new-found courage of the men who
were about to join them.

Ahmed ran back to the doctor to inform him of what he had seen.

"Post two men at the window, and let them fire whenever a sepoy shows
himself," said the doctor.

The khansaman and one of the Sikhs took up their position at the window.
Sped by a few well-directed shots, the enemy either evacuated the lane
or took shelter immediately beneath the wall, where they were secure.

Meanwhile, as was soon apparent, they had sent off for reinforcements