ized upon in the darkness. There was a fresh burst of
yelling, the Ghazis raging in their disappointment and at the losses
that had befallen them, just, too, when they believed that an entry had
been made.

The Doctor took advantage of the pause in the attack to order every
invalid who could move by his own efforts to seek refuge in the
officers' ward, and with groans and sighs they obeyed, one helping the
other, and in many instances having to be helped in turn, while several
by slow degrees managed to crawl. A pause in the attack did not give
time for all this, the enemy coming fiercely on again before the ward
was half clear; but the bristling array of bayonets presented at the
narrow doorway kept them from gaining an entrance, each stroke of their
tulwars being received on the rifle-barrels, and several going down as
deadly thrusts were made.

It was evident enough to Bracy and the Doctor that their defence could
not last, much longer. A party of able-bodied men, dividing and taking
their duty in turn, might have kept the whole body of the hill-men at
bay for an indefinite time; but the efforts of Gedge and Mrs Gee were
growing weaker, and at last it was all that the invalids could do to
keep their bayonets from being beaten down.

"We must make for our last refuge, Doctor," said Bracy at last.

"Yes, and none too soon," was his reply; "but first of all let's have as
much of the bedding as we can get taken to the other room to form a
breastwork. Half you men retire and carry mattresses and blankets till
you are ordered to cease."

This was done, and then the order was given, just as the enemy was
making one of its most savage attacks, the men pressing on with all
their might, till a volley was fired which made them recoil. It was
only to recover themselves and pour fiercely in through the dense smoke,
to begin yelling with rage as they found by degrees that the long ward
was empty, and a fresh barrier of bayonets bristling ready for them at
the farther door, where a couple of charpoys had been hastily thrown
across one upon the other, and piled on the top was all the bedding,
principally rough straw mattresses and blankets--a slight enough
breastwork, but impervious to sword-cuts, while to reach over in order
to make a blow was to expose whoever struck to a deadly bayonet-thrust.
Here the defence was gallantly maintained again, the attack as fiercely
made, till the floor became wet with blood, and several