the back
window just now, and could hear shouts and the report of firearms all
over the place. No; if we go out into the streets we are safe to be
murdered, if we stop here they may not search the house. Anyhow, at the
worst we can make a better fight here than in the streets."

Two hours passed. At times large bodies of natives rushed along the
streets, brandishing their sticks and shouting triumphantly. Some few of
them had firearms, and these they discharged at the windows as they
passed along.

"We ought to have had some troops here long before this," Antonio said
to his brother.

The latter, who was sitting on a chair evidently exhausted by his
exertions, shrugged his shoulders.

"They were more likely to help the mob than to interfere with them. The
troops are at the bottom of the whole trouble."

A clock on the mantel-piece struck five, just as a fresh body of natives
came down the street. They were evidently bent upon pillage, as they
broke up and turned into the shops. Shouts and pistol-shots were again
heard.

"They are sacking the houses this time, Joseph. Now the hour has come."

The two brothers knelt together before the figure of a saint in a
little niche in the wall. The boys glanced at each other, and each,
following the example of the Italians, knelt down by a chair and prayed
for a minute or two. As they rose to their feet there was a sudden din
below. Pistol in hand, the brothers rushed out on the landing.

"Do not try to come up!" Antonio shouted in Egyptian. "You are welcome
to what you can find below, but you shall not come up here. We are
desperate men, and well armed."

The natives, who were just about to ascend the stairs, drew back at the
sight of the brothers standing pistol in hand at the top, with the three
lads behind them. The stairs were only wide enough for one to advance at
a time, and the natives, eager as they were for blood and plunder,
shrank from making the attempt. Some of those who were farthest back
began to slink out of the shop, and the others followed their example.
There was a loud talking outside for some time, then several of them
again entered. Some of them began to pull out the drawers, as if in the
hopes of finding something that former searchers had overlooked, others
passed on into an inner room.

"What are they up to now, I wonder?" Arthur Hill said.

"No good, I will be bound," Jim Tucker replied. "There! They seem to be
going out again now."

Just