Those of my chaps, on the roof, who had any cartridges left let off their rifles at them again, and at others who were lashing their poor tired brutes through the sand, along the beach, at the back of the house. I don’t think that more than a couple of hundred got back beyond that bend in safety. One, a powerful-looking native, half-nigger, was the last to come struggling along the beach. Hundreds of bullets were hitting the sand all round him and splashing in the water beyond, but he seemed to bear a charmed life. He’d thrown away his rifle and his lance, and as he came to that line of Gerald’s people across the beach, he put his hand in front of his face, bent low over his horse’s neck, and charged right through them. I felt jolly glad to see him safe and coming towards us, but then one of my own little chaps ran out from the Casino, down the beach, knelt down, raised his rifle, and waited for him. The trooper saw him, struck his poor beast with the flat of his sword, and made one gallant effort to ride him down, but the horse was so exhausted that he could hardly raise a trot in that loose sand. The little kneeling man fired, and the horse plunged on to its head and rolled over, the trooper slipping to his feet and jumping clear. With a yell he grabbed his sword and rushed at the little man, and I thought my chap was finished, but he had another cartridge in his rifle, fired again, and the big trooper slithered forward, clawed at the sand, and was dead. I felt jolly sorry, but the men on the roof, watching with bloodthirsty eyes, jumped to their feet and yelled, and the little man, bending over the body, pulled off the big trooper’s boots, stuck them on his own feet, and came awkwardly up to the Casino again, his face beaming with pride. I felt rather sick, and looked round. Seymour was on his knees. ’We’ve won,’ he cried, with a wild look in his eyes. ’I’ve done my bit, too.’ He raised himself to his feet, and would have fallen if I hadn’t caught him and lowered him on his mattress. I heard shouts of ’_Don Geraldio!_’ ’_Viva los Horizontals!_’ and looking over into the road, saw dear old Gerald stalking along smoking his pipe, making big strides over dead men and horses, and José, in his red sash, leading his horse behind him. I ran down to meet him as he came up the steps. ’We’ve won, Gerald!’ I sang out. ’You’ve made a beastly mess of the Casino, Billums; I hope no one has collared the mater’s bag,’ was the only thing he said. Well, that finished the ’Two Days’ Fight’ as it was called; Gerald’s chaps were too worn out and too short of ammunition to follow Zorilla immediately, and gave him time to withdraw, with the remnant of his people, along the road to El Castellar. Jones and Richardson came along presently with their two pom-poms and five or six hundred riflemen they had brought from San Fernando. They were awfully full of ’buck.’