ards and the journey would be over.

"Come on, lads, only another step or two!" he cried, gasping for
breath in the parching air.

"Ay, ay," came the answer in various tones.

At last the top was reached. The sight now became fearful; the
bursting shells, ploughing up the ground on all sides, were enough
to strike terror into any one's heart. The blue-jackets, used to
facing fire of all kinds, simply laughed and joked as they pointed
out the inaccuracy of the firing.

"Them savages 'ad better go back to their bows and arrers,"
exclaimed one of the men, as he saw a shell pitch about half-way
short of the hill. "Blowed if they could 'it an 'aystack, the black
divils!"

His companions laughed, and it did all hands good. Notwithstanding
their indomitable pluck, the nervous strain was great, and the laugh
relieved them. The hill-top was very bare, and, as George glanced
round for a means of securing the pulley, he began to think that
after all he had no easy task. The only possible means of securing
it was to drive strong poles deep and firmly into the earth, and
then fix the pulleys to them.

As Helmar stood examining the spot, a splinter of one of the shells
struck the earth close to him, and glancing off, whizzed past within
an inch of his face. Springing back, he turned to a man near him.

"That was a close call," he said.

"Ay, and it might ha' been closer," was the solemn reply.

There was no time to be lost, Helmar had made up his mind, and gave
his instructions to the men. Taking a crowbar, about seven feet
long, they drove it into the earth until there was little more than
two feet of it remaining above ground. Just as this was finished, a
shell pitched and burst barely twenty yards from them, and the whole
party narrowly escaped death. The explosion tore up the ground until
it looked as if a plough had recently passed over it.

For fear the crowbar should not be firm enough to hold the weight of
the gun, Helmar now fixed a stay to it and secured it to the ground;
then collecting all the loose, heavy stones around, had them rolled
into position so as to prevent the stake from drawing.

The hill was now becoming too hot to hold them; the Arabs, bent on
dislodging them, continued their fire with greater accuracy, until
it became so deadly that the rest of the work had to be done lying
down.

The process of fastening the iron block to the crowbar was
comparatively easy, and yet it was during this operat