et. There was no firing
either from the British lines or from the defences of the city, and the
night was so still, with the brooding stillness of an imminent storm,
that the slightest sound in his vicinity would have reached his ear.
Pausing for a few moments for reassurance, he at length ventured to
creep to the foot of the wall, and grope his way up the steps leading to
the battlements, eight feet below the parapet. Half-way up he heard a
faint call somewhere to his left, but it was not answered, and he went
on till he gained the top.

Stealing along the battlements, he sought for some fissure in which he
might plant his lathi. But he found none, and the masonry of the wall
was far too hard to allow him to bore a hole in it without making a
noise that was bound to attract attention. He wished he could have gone
to one of the embrasures and tied his rope to the gun itself; but even
if the gunners were asleep, it involved a risk he dared not run. He was
at his wit's end to know what to do. Flat on his belly, to lessen the
chances of being seen, he crawled along, seeking for a hole, and
becoming more and more anxious as the moments fled. What if his warning
should reach Hodson Sahib too late? The parapet was loopholed for
musketry, but the loopholes afforded him no assistance. At length, when
almost in despair, he came to a spot where a shot from one of the
British guns had made a jagged rent in the parapet. Here, surely, at
this fortuitous embrasure, he could put his fortune to the test. Gently
unwinding the rope from about his body, he fixed the slip-knot on the
lathi, and having laid this transversely across the gap, he paid out the
rope until he felt it touch bottom.

Now came the critical moment. He knew that as soon as he attempted to
cross the parapet there was a danger that, dark as the night was, his
form might be seen. There was a gun with its group of gunners not many
yards to his right. If one of the men should chance to look in his
direction he could hardly escape discovery. He was thankful that the sky
was overcast; indeed, his journey promised to be an uncomfortable one,
for big spots of rain were falling. Perhaps these heralds of a storm
might cause the gunners to huddle themselves more closely in their
cloaks. But it was vain to delay; the sooner he made the attempt the
better; so, one hand holding the rope, with the other he got a grip of
the top of the parapet. Then he gave a sudden spring, gained th