of them may let us alone. Now listen to me. When I give the word, you
two take the camels outside and make them kneel about fifty yards
away, not nearer, for I don't know the effective range of these new
explosives; it may be greater than I think. I shall wait until the Fung
are well over the mine and then fire it, after which I hope to join you.
If I don't, ride as hard as you can go to that White Rock, and if you
reach Mur give my compliments to the Child of Kings, or whatever she is
called, and say that although I have been prevented from waiting upon
her, Sergeant Quick understands as much about picrates as I do. Also
get Shadrach tried and hanged if he is guilty of Higgs's death. Poor old
Higgs! how he would have enjoyed this."

"Beg your pardon, Captain," said Quick, "but I'll stay with you. The
doctor can see to the baggage animals."

"Will you be good enough to obey orders and fall to the rear when you
are told, Sergeant? Now, no words. It is necessary for the purposes of
this expedition that one of us two should try to keep a whole skin."

"Then, sir," pleaded Quick, "mayn't I take charge of the battery?"

"No," he answered sternly. "Ah! the doors are down at last," and he
pointed to a horde of Fung, mounted and on foot, who poured through the
gateway where they had stood, shouting after their fashion, and went on:
"Now then, pick out the captains and pepper away. I want to keep them
back a bit, so that they come on in a crowd, not scattered."

We took up our repeating rifles and did as Orme told us, and so dense
was the mass of humanity opposite that if we missed one man, we hit
another, killing or wounding a number of them. The result of the loss of
several of their leaders, to say nothing of meaner folk, was just
what Orme had foreseen. The Fung soldiers, instead of rushing on
independently, spread to right and left, until the whole farther side of
the square filled up with thousands of them, a veritable sea of men, at
which we pelted bullets as boys hurl stones at a wave.

At length the pressure of those behind thrust onward those in front,
and the whole fierce, tumultuous mob began to flow forward across the
square, a multitude bent on the destruction of three white men, armed
with these new and terrible weapons. It was a very strange and thrilling
sight; never have I seen its like.

"Now," said Orme, "stop firing and do as I bid you. Kneel the camels
fifty yards outside the wall, not less, and wait