“I asked him what was up, and he said that the sentries reported fire in the distance. We hurried on our clothes and ran upstairs. There we found the officer man and several N.C.O.’s all looking out to the north, where some miles away--we were on a bit of hill--there was a big flare in the sky. “They bucked a bit--which, of course, I couldn’t understand--and then Stephnos told me they thought it was a raid. “About ten minutes later we heard horses’ hoofs on the stones below, and then the sentries at the lower gate challenged. Then we heard the gate being opened, and after that men coming up the stone stairs. “They came up into the light of the torches on the platform below us, a couple of soldiers and another chap--a local by the look of him--splashed with mud and covered with dust, and still breathing hard. “He talked to the officer for about half a minute, and then an N.C.O., who was listening, ran to the beacon with a torch and lit it. Soaked in oil, I fancy, for it went up in a blaze straight off. “The officer turned and said something to Stephnos, and they talked for a few seconds and then the officer shouted out some orders, an N.C.O. blew a whistle, down below from the lower gate some one sounded a horn, and then I heard the men below turning out. Pretty slick they were, for five minutes later, looking down from the parapet, I saw them leading out the horses. The whole place was red light now from the blazing beacon. “I asked Stephnos what was up, and he said an enemy party had got through the line of posts and raided a village about six miles away--the one we could see blazing. The man who had just galloped in was a watchman from the next village. They seemed to have a regular system of alarm-posts, for five minutes after our beacon went up there were two more twinkling away to the south of us. “Stephnos said he was taking his men and twenty more from the fort and going off at once to the village. Firoz had come up by this time, anxious to know what it was all about, so I told him to come along, too. “Ten minutes later we were in the saddle and away down the track. It was too dark to canter; there was only just the last bit of the moon. “The dawn was breaking when we got close to the village, and Stephnos checked a minute while his scouts nosed round. Then one of them came galloping back and said something to him, and we pushed on again. “He told me the enemy had gone, and the scouts were out on the far side of the village. It was just light enough to see as we rode in, but the glare of the burning ricks, and the light from such of the thatched roofs as had not fallen in, gave us enough to see without the daylight. “Stephnos’s horse shied at a dead man lying across the path, and then we pulled up in the middle of the village. “Quite a small place--a few houses, most of ’em of mud bricks with thatched roofs, the usual crowd of cattle-shelter and some wooden barns, now well alight.