“I see. You want to shift the responsibility from your shoulders to mine. Well, be off!” said Sir Dugald, with an uneasy laugh. He could scarcely meet Colonel Keeling’s eye when he hurried down to him a minute or two later, brimful of his good news, and anxious to be assured that Lady Haigh also was going on well; and he was grateful to Gobind Chand for choosing this juncture to launch a detachment of his men at the steepest, and therefore least defended, side of the hill. “Now is our time!” cried Colonel Keeling, hurrying away. “You can fire the signal-shot, Haigh.” The gun boomed forth, and the shot fell in the very opening of the valley, causing the rest of Gobind Chand’s men to rush forward, in the belief that they would be safer within the range of fire than at its limit, an idea which seemed to be justified by the fact that Sir Dugald left the gun as it was, instead of depressing the muzzle to cover the enemy actually in the valley. But as the besiegers, much encouraged, rushed forward with shouts to scale the hill, there came a sharp rattle of musketry from the cliffs which commanded it on both sides. The dark uniform of the Khemistan Horse showed itself against the grey and yellow of the rocks, and Porter on one side and Harris on the other became clearly visible as they ran along the ranks pushing down the muzzles of the carbines, and adjuring the men to fire low for fear of hitting the Colonel’s party. Then also the defenders of the hill, who had been lying hidden among the rocks, started up and poured their fire into the disorderly ranks of the besiegers, so that only one or two daring spirits survived to reach the summit and provoke a hand-to-hand fight with tulwars. Outwitted, and conscious that they, and not their opponents, were in a trap, Gobind Chand’s force remembered only that there was still a way of escape; and the wave which had surged three times halfway up the hill retreated sullenly, then broke in wild confusion, and rushed for the opening of the valley. But Sir Dugald was ready for them. His gun dropped shot after shot in the narrowest part of the passage, until a barrier of dead and dying barred those behind from attempting the deadly rush, and when the boldest had been able to persuade their more timid comrades, who stood huddled in a terrified mass, to make one last united effort to burst through, they found themselves confronted by a force composed of every alternate man of Porter and Harris’s commands. The heights were still occupied, the defenders of the hill had deployed and were advancing on them from behind, in front were stern faces and levelled carbines. There were no Ghazis with Gobind Chand, and the bulk of his followers were not particularly heroic by nature. They knew that their leader was wounded, and they threw down their arms and yelled for quarter. A narrow pathway was cleared beside the ghastly heap in the entrance of the valley, and they were made to step out man by man, and