hurt."

At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above. Bathurst gave a
violent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he rushed past Mrs. Hunter
and up the staircase to the terrace, when he staggered rather than
walked forward to the parapet, and threw himself down beside two figures
who were in the act of firing.

"Is that you, Bathurst?" the Major's voice asked. "Mind, man, don't lift
your head above the sandbags in that way. There, you had best lie quiet;
the natives have no idea of attacking, and it is of no use throwing away
valuable ammunition by firing unless your hand is steady."

But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above the line
of sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder and forced him
down. He might have put his hands over his ears to deaden the sound--for
in the darkness no one would have seen the action--but he would not do
so, but with clenched teeth and quivering nerves lay there until the
Major said, "I fancy we have stopped them working. Now, Doctor, do you,
Hunter, Bathurst, and Farquharson go and lie down for four hours, when I
will send for you to take our places. Before you lie down will you tell
Doolan to send half his party in? Of course you will lie down in your
clothes, ready to fall in at your posts at a moment's notice."

"Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they are doing.
We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won't dare to work under our
fire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don't throw away a shot, if
they are still working there."

The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives at the
spot where they had been seen at work.

"I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close quarters
as these. We must have played the mischief with them."

"All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there occasionally to
show them we have not forgotten them. But the principal thing will be
to keep our ears open to see that they don't bring up ladders and try a
rush."

"I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would not have
set to work at the battery if they had any idea of trying to scale the
wall with ladders. That will come later on; but I don't think you will
be troubled any more tonight, except by these fellows firing away from
the bushes, and I should think they would get tired of wasting their
ammunition soon. It is fortunate we brought all the spare ammunition in
here."

"Yes,