five minutes later when first one and then, perhaps, a
couple of dozen grey-coated figures slipped into view from behind the
tumbled masonry at the far end of the hall, and, darting to right or to
left or down the centre, flopped down behind masses of stone and cement
with which the floor was littered.

"Now keep down," Henri told his friends; "or, better still, keep right
away from the barricade, and report instantly if bullets contrive to
penetrate the sacks. Personally, I don't think they will, for we've
piled them up two deep, and a bag of grain affords tremendous
opposition even to a sharp-pointed bullet. Ah! There goes the first!
Well, has it gone through?"

"No. Nor will any others," the veteran told him, with a chuckle. "We
are safe--safer, indeed, behind these bags, than if we had a stone wall
before us. For, mon garcon, you understand there will be no
ricochetting, no splintering of bullets, no splashes of lead about us."

In a few minutes, as the firing from the hall down below became more
general, and thuds on the outer face of the wall of sacks became almost
continuous, it was borne in upon Henri and his gallant little band that
even bullets discharged at such point-blank range had for the moment
little danger for them.

"Then we'll line our wall," said Henri. "It's not more than twelve
feet across, so that six men lying flat on their faces will be
sufficient for the purpose; six more will kneel down behind them, so as
to be ready to fire over the top of the barricade in case of a rush;
and our machine-gun man must squeeze himself into the midst of them.
Now, man the loopholes!"

It was a canny suggestion of the bearded veteran which had caused the
men assisting him to build the barricade to leave loopholes for the
rifles of the defenders, not only along the top of this improvised
wall, with bags placed so that the heads of those who fired would be
protected, but to leave apertures also just a foot from the bottom
through which men lying flat on their faces might fire down into the
hall. As for the machine-gun, it was piled round with bags, just the
bare tip of the muzzle protruding, and, indeed, thanks to the dusk
which occluded the top of the stairs, giving no indication of its
presence to the enemy. Thus, with the wall manned, and the remainder
of his little party squatting on the stone floor of the gun-chamber
ready to support their comrades, Henri and his men waited for perhaps
half an h