d shoulder; and though
bruised and shaken, was none the worse for his fall. The foremost of
his men dismounted and opened fire upon the treacherous rock, without
eliciting response; and quick as lightning he sprang to his feet, mad
with rage and pain. A single glance showed him that his charger's
wounds were mortal. Two well-directed bullets had entered the chest;
and the great soft eyes were glazing fast.

With a swift contraction of the heart, Desmond turned away, and issued
hurried orders for a hundred men to dismount and take the hill at full
speed. Half a dozen of Denvil's Pathans--left in charge of the
discarded horses--gave information that the Sahib had taken his sowars
up some time before, commanding them to await his return.

Distracted by anxiety, Desmond awaited the dismounting of his
troopers, revolver in hand. The instant they were ready he bounded
over the broken ground, his trumpeter dogging him like a shadow, and a
self-imposed bodyguard of six sowars following close upon his heel.
Behind these again the mountain-side was alive with clambering men;
and the small party left below enviously watched their ascent.

Only by the impetus of his spirit did Desmond manage to keep ahead of
his men; for in general the native outstrips the Englishman in this
form of mountaineering. One thought hammering at his brain goaded him
to superhuman exertion: "Those devils shall not murder Harry before I
reach him."

Breathless and resolute, he hurried on, stumbling now and again from
sheer excess of haste, clenching his teeth to keep the curses back. A
dull stain spread slowly across his left shoulder, where the blood was
soaking through his khaki coat.

The slope ended in a twenty-foot wall of rocks, massed so as to form
huge irregular steps, that led to an abrupt bit of level, whereon the
fighting appeared to be taking place. Sounds came to him now that
lashed him to a frenzy; the clash of knives and sabres, the thud of
many feet; the fierce shouts without which it is impossible for
primitive man to slay or be slain.

Desmond never quite knew how he climbed those formidable steps; and as
he vaulted up the last of them, the whole dread scene sprang abruptly
into view.

Denvil and his fifteen Pathans had been ambuscaded and outnumbered;
and in the cramped space a sharp hand-to-hand encounter was in
progress. A small party of Sikhs had already come up with him; but
even so the odds were heavily on the wrong side. I