e he had recovered from his leap: the
corporal's bayonet disposed of another. Then the Englishman became alive
to the danger, and with Ahmed sprinted across the garden to the house.
One of the Sikhs was waiting to slam the door as soon as they got
through. Another, just behind, stood with levelled musket, and took a
snap-shot at the man immediately behind Ahmed. The mutineer fell,
tripping up the man following him, and giving Ahmed the fraction of a
second that was necessary to slip in behind the corporal and bar the
door. Two other Sikhs at once occupied the loopholes, and in another
second or two their fire brought down two of the leading mutineers.

The doctor, meanwhile, had cried to the other men to post themselves at
the back windows, the shutters of which also were loopholed, and they
too fired among the throng now crowding into the garden from three
sides. There were not wanting men of courage among the assailants, and
several of them rushed up to the windows with the idea of firing through
the loopholes, which were plainly to be seen, if only by the smoke
filtering through them; but the inside of the house being higher than
the outside, they were unable to reach high enough to get an aim. All
they could do was to fire at the shutters, and a scattered volley of
bullets thudded upon them. For the most part they embedded themselves in
the woodwork. One or two actually penetrated the loopholes, but being
fired from below, they failed to hit the men behind, who had retired
slightly from the windows to reload.

The doctor shouted to the men to fire alternately, one reloading while
the other fired. The mutineers crowding into the garden found themselves
exposed to a deadly dropping of bullets of which they themselves could
see the fatal results, while they were ignorant of what damage their own
fire was doing. There was no cover in the garden except the fountain.
Every part of it was commanded from the door or one or other of the
windows; the fountain would at best shelter only one or two. They found
that every bullet fired by the garrison meant the loss of one of their
number. There were several rushes and attempts to batter in the door
with the stocks of muskets, or to push the muzzles up through the
loopholes, but these always met with the same fate as the first,
although one Sikh was badly hit by a splinter.

While the men still kept up their fire, Ahmed rushed through to the
front, whence he again heard the din