"Can you come to the house for a minute or two?" said Lawrence. "I’ve got a good deal to tell you, and you can’t attend to me and the enemy at the same time." "All right. I’ll leave Gur Buksh in charge. They’ve done us no harm yet--inside at any rate; but I’ll give you all the news. Come on!" Seated in the house, Lawrence repeated the substance of the conversation between Major Endicott and Captain Fenton. Bob listened in amazement. "By George! it’s a big thing," he exclaimed. "No wonder we were puzzled. It’s desperately serious, then." "Yes, and this is the serious part for us. The major wired all about us to headquarters, and the commander-in-chief wired back that we must hold on at all costs for a week. He made no bones about it: simply said it must be done." "Well, we’ll do it!" cried Bob with flashing eyes. "We’ll not cave in after a direct order from the commander-in-chief. It’s the best thing that could have happened. Some of the men are getting rather shaky, but I’ll tell them the Sirkar depends on them--talk about their known valour, and all that: and it’ll buck them up no end." "Wouldn’t the promise of a reward from Government be more effective?" "I dare say; but it’s only a jolly ass who’d give a pledge of that sort for Government. I dare say they mean well, but--no, my boy, it’s not safe. We’ll rely on moral stimulants. Now look here: this is what I’ve done----" "I see you’ve thrown up a breastwork on the other side, but so have the enemy, and cut a path too." "Yes, that’s one to them, confound them! I had twenty men behind my breastwork, but when the enemy came round the bend this morning they bolted back in a panic. They’d have done better to stick to it, for two of them were shot in the back and killed outright. I’d left the bridge down under a guard, so that the others got back safely, but their retreat had a bad effect on the rest. They need a tonic." "The major gave me a dozen rifles and a lot of ammunition: that’ll help." "It will indeed: I’ve had to be sparing." "Why didn’t the enemy occupy your breastwork?" "No doubt they would have only I built it at such an angle that it can be enfiladed from our wall. It’s a great nuisance that they’ve managed to get so far as they have. I hoped to be able to check them at the bend much longer--at any rate until they’d brought up the two field guns you told me about. When they arrive we shan’t be able to hold the wall. We shall have to take refuge in the galleries." "That means suffocation."