his
shoulder-blade told Lenox he was hit. But not being disabled, he paid
small heed to so trivial an incident at the time. The incessant firing
took up all his attention.

Before ten minutes were out, shells, case-shot, and shrapnel had all
been exhausted. The Mahsuds were firing more steadily than ever; and
on the terrace itself, the infantry and sowars were in no enviable
case. Unwin had fallen, shot through the head. Montague had
momentarily succumbed to pain and exhaustion; and Desmond, with little
Martin of the Punjab Infantry and a Sikh Subadar, was in command of
affairs.

Sudden faintness, and a damp discomfort down his back, warned Lenox
that his wound must be bleeding more freely than he knew. He gripped
the shoulder of a gunner standing near him; and for an instant all
things swam together before his eyes.

"Look, Captain Sahib, look! There be fresh men on the hill."

The voice of the Havildar Major in his ear steadied his senses: and he
saw the new danger that threatened. Down the steep hillside at their
right rear, a compact body of men leapt cautiously from cover to cover;
an occasional glint of sunlight on a sword-blade revealing their
probable intent.

"I say, Dick, those devils'll rush the guns if we give 'em half a
chance," he said, turning to his subaltern; and without waiting for an
answer, ordered his escort to cover the hill, and prepare for a volley.

But almost before the command could be obeyed,--with a final leap and a
dull roar, rising to a yell of triumph,--the Waziris were upon them at
close quarters; the front ranks brandishing long knives, the rest armed
with matchlocks and rifles.

The Sikhs stood their ground sturdily: as Sikhs may be trusted to do in
any straits; while the guns, firing over their heads, sent many of the
frenzied fanatics rolling over and over, with yells of a very different
nature.

Then, suddenly . . Lenox never quite knew how it happened . . he felt
the earth heave under him; some one gripped him from behind: Dick's
tall figure, revolver in hand, interposed between him and the swarming
hillside; and the next instant reeled against him with such violence
that both fell heavily to the ground. At once their men closed round
them, covering them with their rifles; a Havildar and two gunners
eagerly proffering lengths of turban for bandages, since it was plain
that Richardson's wound in the thigh was no light matter.

Startled and stunned as he was, Le