tric. The remaining guards glanced up
apprehensively, and very speedily changed their location.

As for Makar, he evidently believed that Sir Arthur had come down
expressly in response to his summons, for he waited for the rest to
follow his example.

"Bless my heart!" muttered Sir Arthur. "What a narrow escape!"

He started toward Makar, but two Arabs laid hold of him and pulled him
roughly to one side.

"We'd better go down," said the colonel, and raising his voice he
shouted,

"Do you swear to preserve our lives if we come down?"

"By the shades of Mohammed, I swear it. Come down," replied Makar.

"We'll have to trust to his word," said the colonel. "Put the ladder in
position."

The ladder, with one end on the ground, failed to reach the top of the
parapet by four or five feet. It was a ticklish business to drop down
on the upper round, but one by one they accomplished it, and, descending
to the ground, were speedily seized and relieved of everything on their
persons.

Perhaps Makar doubted his ability to keep his word, for he hurried his
prisoners into the residency, away from the turbulent crowd, and left
them in the hall in custody of a dozen armed Arabs.

They had not been here five minutes when a commotion was heard outside,
and the shattered doors were pulled apart to admit half a dozen weary,
blood stained soldiers of the garrison. They were the last survivors,
and they told a fearful story.

The fortifications had been attacked, they said, at the same time by the
population of the town on one side, and on the south by a vast horde of
Arabs and Somalis, who suddenly appeared over the sand-hills mounted on
camels. They alone had been made prisoners. All others had been shot,
including the officers, the port surgeon, and the native assistant
resident.

This sad story brought tears to the eyes of all, and even Sir Arthur
waxed terribly indignant and prophesied speedy retribution.

But now the guards sternly forbade conversation. An hour or more passed
on, during which time many persons indistinguishable in the gloom,
passed in and out of the residency.

Then came a summons to appear before the chief.

"Don't be alarmed," said Sir Arthur reassuringly. "We shall be sent
across the gulf of Aden. This wretch will not dare do injury to her
majesty's representatives."

Sir Arthur's sudden change of spirits was not shared by the rest.

"Nerve yourself," Melton whispered to Guy. "I have an idea of