showed the slightest concern. Kaluja
had just finished his work when, led by the shrieking fakir, the mob
made a rush for the stairway. Several men, heedless of the nails,
scrambled up for a foot or two. Then with shrill cries of rage and pain
they jumped backwards, overturning their comrades who were pressing on
behind them. The plank was smoking with the strong acid which the
khansaman had poured upon it. Most of the mob were barefooted, and even
their tough soles could not withstand the effects of the burning liquid,
the fumes from which set those above choking.

The hall was now packed tight with yelling rebels, so closely pressed
together that to use their muskets was impossible. They had no escape
from the shots fired by the men above as fast as they could reload. Then
a new terror was added to the scene. Ahmed now saw the meaning of the
knocking he had heard. Over the gap in the floor the khansaman had laid
the doctor's sitz-bath, in the bottom of which he had pierced a number
of holes. He was now engaged in emptying the contents of his master's
bottles into the bath, the doctor adding water from time to time. It
would have puzzled the most expert chemist to define the chemical
composition which fell in a steady shower on the heads of the
panic-stricken mutineers. The liquid fizzed and smoked, and changed
colour like a chameleon--now green, now yellow, now brown, now an
indescribable mixture of tints. There was only one desire among the
discomfited enemy: to escape from this cockpit in which they suffered
pangs due to the hakim's mysterious art as well as to the more familiar
weapons of war. Pushing, shouting, scrambling over each other, they
forced their way out into the compound, and there was such a wringing of
hands and such a chorus of groans as surely Delhi had never heard or
seen before.

The attack at the front had been effectually beaten off. The doctor
hoped that the enemy would now retire altogether. But Ahmed ran up to
the roof to see whether they were indeed withdrawing. The street was
still full of rebels, and an excited altercation was going on among
them. The central figures were Minghal Khan, who had hitherto been
content to hound the men on without showing much eagerness to lead them,
and the fakir, who bore many marks of the chemical baptism he had
received. The uproar was too great to allow Ahmed to hear what was being
said; he could only guess at it by the gesticulations of the men and by
w