a fresh shower of bullets came scattering around
them, and looked keenly at the granite rock and its burden,
half-expecting to see a fresh occupant taking aim. But apparently no
one seemed disposed to expose himself anew to the rifles of such deadly
shots, and the terrible peril to which the two fishermen had been
exposed ceased for the time being, though the pair waited in momentary
expectation of its recurrence.

But the enemy did not slacken their efforts to finish their task by
easier means, and the firing from the front went on more briskly than
ever, the young officers contenting themselves with holding theirs and
displaying no excitement now, their shelter, so long as they lay close,
being sufficient, the worst befalling them now being a sharp rap from a
scrap of stone struck from the rocks, or the fall of a half-flattened
bullet.

"That's right; don't fire until we are in an emergency," said Drew at
the end of a few minutes.

"In a what?" cried Dickenson.

"In regular peril."

"Why, what do you call this?" cried Dickenson, with a laugh. "I made my
will half-an-hour ago--in fancy, of course."

"Well, it is a hot corner," said Drew, joining in his companion's grim
mirth; "but we haven't got to the worst of it yet."

"What!" yelled Dickenson. "Oh Drew, old man, you are about the coolest
fish in the regiment. It can't be worse than it has been."

"Can't it? Wait a few minutes, and the party who made for the ford will
be at us."

"But they can't get their horses down the way we came."

"No; but they can leave them with a fourth of their fellows to hold
while they get somewhere within shot, and then we're done. What do you
say to tying a handkerchief to a rifle-barrel and holding it up? We've
held out well."

"Nothing! What do you say?"

"Same as you do; but I thought I'd give you the option if you did not
feel as obstinate as I do."

"Obstinate? I don't call it obstinate to hold out now. I've seen too
many of our poor lads carried to the rear. Here," continued the
speaker, after feeling, "I haven't used half my cartridges yet. Ask me
again when they're all gone, and then I'll tell you the idea I've got."

"What is it? Tell me now."

"Very well. We'll fire the last cartridge at the cowardly brutes--fifty
at least to two--and then give them a surprise."

"What! walk out and hold up your hands?"

"No; that would be a surprise, of course; but I've got a better."

"Let's have it."