und to go under in the end, but we'll be able, I hope,
to keep them off for a few days. And every hour we hold them up will be
worth a lot to those below. We shan't be relieved, for there aren't any men
to spare in India. But we'll have done our part."

"I say, Major, wasn't it lucky we got those machine guns in time? I've
plenty of ammunition, so we ought to be able to put up a good fight.
What'll they do first?"

"Try to rush the defences at once. They have a lot of irregulars whom the
Chinese General won't be able to keep in hand. He won't mind their being
wiped out either. I see you've made a good job of clearing the foreground.
You haven't left them much cover. So you blew up our poor old Mess and the
bungalows?"

"Yes. The rubble came in handy for filling in that _nullah_. Hullo!"
Parker's glasses went to his eyes. "You're right, by Jingo! They're
gathering for an assault. Gad! what a beautiful mark for shrapnel. I wish
we'd a gun or two."

A storm of shells from the mountain batteries, the only artillery that the
enemy had been able to bring with them through the Himalayas, fell on the
Fort and its defences. Then masses of men rushed down the hills to the
attack. Not a shot was fired at them. Encouraged by the garrison's silence
and carried away by the prospect of an easy victory, they lost all
formation and crowded together in dense swarms.

The two British officers watched them from the central redoubt. Parker held
his binoculars to his eyes with his right hand, while his left forefinger
rested on a polished button in a little machine on the table beside him.
The assailants, favoured by the fall of the ground, soon reached the limits
of the cantonments, bare now of buildings and trees. There were trained
Chinese troops, some tall, light-complexioned Northerners of Manchu blood,
others stocky, yellow men from Canton and the Southern Provinces. Mobs of
Bhutanese with heads, chests, legs, and feet bare, fierce but undisciplined
fighters, armed with varied weapons, led the van. Uttering weird yells and
brandishing their _dahs_, spears, muskets, and rifles, they rushed towards
the fort, from which no shot was fired. Accustomed to the lofty _jongs_, or
castles, of their own land they deemed the breastworks and trenches
unworthy of notice. And the stone barracks and walls in the Fort were
rapidly melting away under the rain of shells.

Flushed with victory the swarming masses came on. But suddenly the world
uphe