shoes and went down to
the edge. Below, some ten feet, was a ledge, on to which with care I
could get down, but below that was a sheer fall of some fifty feet. As a
means of escape it was hopeless, but it struck me that if an attack was
made I might slip away and get on to the ledge. Once there I could not
be seen except by a person standing where I now was, just on the edge of
the slope, a spot to which it was very unlikely that anyone would come.

"The thought gave me a shadow of hope, and, returning to the upper end
of the platform, I lay down, and in spite of the hardness of the rock,
was soon asleep. The pain of my aching bones woke me up several times,
and once, just as the first tinge of dawn was coming, I thought I could
hear movements in the jungle. I raised myself somewhat, and I saw
that the sounds had been heard by the Dacoits, for they were standing
listening, and some of them were bringing spare firearms from the
storehouse, in evident preparation for attack.

"As I afterwards learned, the police had caught one of the Dacoits
trying to effect his escape, and by means of a little of the ingenious
torture to which the Indian police then frequently resorted, when their
white officers were absent, they obtained from him the exact position of
Sivajee's band, and learned the side from which the ascent must be made.
That the Dacoit and his band were still upon the slopes of the Ghauts
they knew, and were gradually narrowing their circle, but there were so
many rocks and hiding places that the process of searching was a slow
one, and the intelligence was so important that the news was off at once
to the colonel, who gave orders for the police to surround the rock at
daylight and to storm it if possible. The garrison was so small that
the police were alone ample for the work, supposing that the natural
difficulties were not altogether insuperable.

"Just at daybreak there was a distant noise of men moving in the jungle,
and the Dacoit halfway down the path fired his gun. He was answered by
a shout and a volley. The Dacoits hurried out from the chamber, and
lay down on the edge, where, sheltered by a parapet, they commanded the
path. They paid no attention to me, and I kept as far away as possible.
The fire began--a quiet, steady fire, a shot at a time and in strong
contrast to the rattle kept up from the surrounding jungle; but every
shot must have told, as man after man who strove to climb that steep
path fell.