the next angle, then left it and
entered the village, and dashed along the street.

The sound of firing had roused many of the peasants. Doors were
opening, and men coming out. Exclamations of surprise were heard, as
the two figures rushed past, but no one thought of interfering with
them. As they left the houses behind them, Surajah said:

"You are going the wrong way, Sahib. You are going right away from the
ghauts."

"I know that well enough," Dick panted; "but I did it on purpose. We
will turn and work round again. They will hear, from the villagers,
that we have come this way, and will be following us down the road
while we are making our way back to the ghauts."

They ran for another hundred yards, then quitted the path, and made
across the fields. From the fort and village they could hear a great
hubbub, and above it could make out the voice of the officer, shouting
orders. They continued to run, for another quarter of a mile, and then
turned.

"Now we can go quietly," Dick said, breaking into a walk. "This line
will take us clear of the fort and village, and we have only to make
straight for the ghauts. I think we have thrown them well off the
scent, and unless the officer suspects that we have only gone the
other way to deceive him, and that we are really making for the
ghauts, we shall hear nothing more of them."

"It is capital," Surajah said. "I could not think what you were doing,
when you turned round the corner of the fort and made for the village,
instead of going the other way. But where did you get that gun from?"

Dick told him how it had come into his possession.

"It was not so much that I cared for the gun," he said, "as that I
wanted to prevent the man from using it. If he had followed me
closely, he could hardly have helped hitting one of us, as we went up
the steps. By shutting the door, we gained a few moments, for they
were all in confusion in the dim light inside, and would certainly not
learn anything, either from the man I pitched in among them, or from
the sentry outside.

"I don't suppose any of them had an idea of what had happened, until
the sentry shouted to them that we had got over the wall. Then they
rushed up, and fired at random from the top, thinking that we should
be running straight from it."

They walked along for a short distance, and then Dick said:

"I have got my wind again, now. We will go on at a jog trot. I
mistrust that officer. He had a crafty face, and