vere for mortal flesh and blood to endure. Of a sudden they
broke and fled, leaving a heap of dead and wounded about the door, and
a trail of fallen men to mark the track they had followed.

"Are you hurt, Buck?" cried Jack, drawing a long breath. Fiercely as
they had been pressed, he had not forgotten Risley's grunt of pain.

"Snicked my shoulder, that's all," replied Buck.

Jim looked at the wound and nodded.

"A snick it is, Buck," he agreed, "and a lucky thing for you. A bit
lower, and it would have smashed the bone."

"We'll wash the wound and tie it up," said Jack.

"Later on, later on," murmured Buck. "We've got no time to spare at
present. What's the little move next with these boys in blue."

"Do you think they will attack us again?" cried Jack.

"Sure thing," said Buck, "they're a tough crew, I can tell you. We've
got a lot more to do before we chill 'em cold."

"That's true," said Dent. "After they smell blood there's no more
holdin' them than you can hold a tiger."

"We've punished them terribly already," said Jack.

It was his first battle, and in true English fashion he had fought his
hardest for his own life and the lives of his comrades. Now he looked
with a troubled eye on the fallen, and sighed.

Jim Dent nodded at him with a friendly smile. "I know just how you
feel, Jack," he said. "But the thing is pure necessity. If you hadn't
shot that chap back in the path there, he'd have had Me Dain's head
off as sure as sin, and after you shot him, the rest followed as
straight as a string."

"True, Jim," said Jack, "the whole thing lies at their door."

"Say, Jack," murmured Buck, "you'd better get your Bisley bull's-eye
trick on that _jingal_ again. They're goin' to try another shot or
two."

Jack ran to the window, and as he did so, the _jingal_ roared, and
crash came the heavy shot into the door. It struck a weak place,
burst through, and rolled across the floor. In another moment Buck had
picked it up and brought it forward.

"Say, boys," murmured Risley, "no wonder this _jingal_ makes the poor
old door crack. Look here!" He displayed a ball of iron, nearly the
size of a cricket ball.

"By George! What a smasher!" said Dent. "The door's bound to go if
they can get two or three of those straight on it."

Jack glanced at the heavy shot, then turned to the window to watch for
the gunners in order to check them in working their destructive piece.

"I can't see them," he said. "There's n