They did not arrive a moment too soon. The mutineers, elated by a temporary success, were ready to offer them battle. They had already encountered the Kolapore Light Infantry, and defeated them with considerable loss. After this they had taken up their position in a pagah, or fortified square with circular bastions, situated near the town. This pagah was a place of considerable strength, and the attacking party had no artillery to effect a breach in the walls. Recourse was had to the rajah, who lent them a couple of old guns, which, on trial, were found to be useless. Night was at hand, and Kerr knew well the danger of delay; if he waited till morning, his men, worn out and discouraged, might refuse to follow him. All his hopes of success depended on an immediate attack; so he resolved at once to carry the place by storm. His men had already witnessed his courage; he had headed the party which occupied the brushwood outside the pagah; he had laid the guns at thirty yards’ range from the western bastion under a heavy fire; he had passed through all this unhurt. The Orientals, fatalists by creed and by constitution, have the greatest faith in the luck that attends certain leaders; they recognised in Kerr one of the favourites of Allah, and were prepared to follow him wherever he chose to lead. He did not give them long to wait. Causing the sowars to dismount from their horses, he placed himself at their head and led them on to the attack. On approaching the walls they found that the task they had undertaken was one of no ordinary difficulty. The only entrance to the place was by small doors of thick teak-wood, from five and a half to six feet in height, which the mutineers had taken the precaution to block up with large stones, so as to render them almost as solid as the walls. If they had been provided with guns this obstacle might easily have been removed; but, as the event proved, the two lent by the rajah were evidently intended more for ornament than use.