f sheep chased by a dog, and
the space around the gun was clear. Ahmed dropped his hammer, and began
to ram in a charge of grape.

"Right you are!" said one of the corporals, divining his intention.
"We'll slew her round. Come on, Bill."

The two corporals with Ahmed's assistance rammed in the charge, and
slewed the gun round so that it pointed down the street, where the crowd
was already beginning to surge back. Then Ahmed snatched up the burning
portfire that lay on the ground and applied it to the touch-hole.

There was a babel of yells from the throng as the shot sped among them.
In so dense a crowd the havoc was terrific. The instant the gun was
fired, before the smoke had cleared away, Ahmed drove his spike into the
touch-hole, and raising his voice to its highest pitch shouted to the
Sikhs to return. In a few moments the whole party was dashing back
through the gateway into the compound. Bullets sang about their ears,
fired from the neighbouring houses; but the smoke still lay thick over
the street, giving them partial protection. One man was struck; him
Ahmed and another caught up and carried between them. They were the last
to reach the door, and had not entered when the crowd, frantic with rage
at their losses and the spoiling of their weapon, came surging in at the
gate. The door was shut just as the first of them, not stopping to fire,
was making a fierce cut at Ahmed.

Breathless but exultant at the success of their desperate enterprise,
Ahmed and the little party went to the loopholes and fired a volley at
the assailants which again daunted them. But now a strident voice was
heard among the shouts outside. Fierce yells answered it, growing in
volume every moment.

"A fakir!" cried a Sikh.

"I've heard the like of that screeching in Seven Dials of a Saturday
night," said one of the corporals.

"And, by gum, it means mischief," said the other. "He'll work those
Pandies up into a perfect fury, Jack, and they'll be that mad they'd
charge into hell."

"Well, screeches won't break down the door."

"No, but a battering-ram will, and dash me if the beggars haven't got
one."

A score of mutineers were hauling a heavy log through the gateway. At
the same moment there was a great uproar from the rear of the house. The
attack in that quarter had not been resumed since the previous night,
the rebels having apparently determined to concentrate on the front,
trusting to win an easy victory with the aid of th