ear in the slightest, it
is that horrible noise. I know well enough that the moment the firing
begins I shall be paralyzed. My only hope is that at the last moment, if
it comes to hand to hand fighting, I shall get my nerve."

"I have no doubt you will," Wilson said warmly; "and when you do I would
back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are beginning."

As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three Sepoy
batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the house, and above
it could be heard loud shouts.

"They are coming, Major," the Doctor shouted down from the roof; "the
Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives behind them."

Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon caught
sight of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the breach. The Major
had ordered that not a shot was to be fired until they reached it, and
it was evident that the silence of the besieged awed the assailants with
a sense of unknown danger, for their pace slackened, and when they got
to within fifty yards of the breach they paused and opened fire. Then,
urged forward by their officers and encouraged by their own noise, they
again rushed forward. Two of their officers led the way; and as these
mounted the little heap of rubbish at the foot of the breach, two rifles
cracked out from the terrace, and both fell dead.

There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured in
through the breach. Those in front tried to stop as they saw the trap
into which they were entering, but pressed on by those behind they were
forced forward.

And now a crackling fire of musketry broke out from the rifles
projecting between the sandbags into the crowded mass. Every shot told.
Wild shrieks, yells, and curses rose from the assailants. Some tried
madly to climb up the sandbags, some to force their way back through
the crowd behind; some threw themselves down; others discharged their
muskets at their invisible foe. From the roof the Doctor and his
companion kept up a rapid fire upon the crowd struggling to enter the
breach. As fast as the defenders' muskets were discharged they handed
them down to the servants behind to be reloaded, and when each had fired
his spare muskets he betook himself to his revolver.

Wilson, while discharging his rifle, kept his eyes upon Bathurst. The
latter had not fired a shot, but lay rigid and still, save for a sort of
convulsive shuddering. Presently there was a lit