it from below; and if we are seen at the windows we shall be marks
for the enemy."

"Then we must set about making the house defensible. Can the parapet be
loopholed?"

"Yes, sahib; the brickwork is crumbling, and with tools we could easily
make loopholes."

"Get a hammer and a chisel, khansaman, and go to the roof with Ahmed
Khan. Jaldi karo! Stay, give the three men below tools for making
loopholes in the shutters; we may want them by and by."

The khansaman provided one of the men with an auger, and the others with
pokers and other kitchen utensils, with which, made red-hot, they could
bore holes through the heavy wood of the shutters. Then he followed
Ahmed to the roof, where they set to work vigorously to make loopholes
in the parapet.

There were still sounds of firing in the distance. At present there was
no sign of an attack on the house. Knowing Minghal Khan, Ahmed suspected
that he was making quite sure there was no danger of being taken in the
rear before attempting an onslaught.

When his work at the parapet was finished, he went down again to the
doctor, who sent him to see how the men were getting on with their task
at the shutters. Three front windows on the ground floor had already
been bored with two loopholes each, and without consulting the doctor he
set the men to treat the shutters of the four windows at the back in the
same way. The men looked at each other in surprise when he had given
this order and gone.

"Who is this Pathan that gives us commands?" said one of them.

"Yea, he speaks even as the sahibs. Shall we do what one of these
puffed-up Guides commands us?"

"Not I, for one," said the third man. "The sahib said the front windows;
that was his order, given us by the khansaman, who is the sahib's
servant. We shall be shamed if we do the bidding of a vile Pathan."

And they laid down their tools and squatted on the floor.

Ahmed meanwhile had hastened to the front door. He found it was made of
extremely hard wood and thickly covered with iron studs, forming a
sufficiently stout defence against anything short of a battering-ram or
a cannon-shot. Coming back through the house to examine the back door
and the door leading to the servants' quarters, he noticed the three
Sikhs squatting in idleness.

"Dogs," he cried, "did not I say go to the back windows, and do as you
did with the front? Why this idleness?"

"We obey the sahibs," said one of the men sulkily.

"Thou son of a dog