"Yes, we’ve got one: the other’s ruined and in the river. But we’ve had a narrow escape from being battered to pieces. Why didn’t you begin bombing before?" "I’ll tell you. We were pretty well peppered, as you saw, when we flew past here down stream. It may have been because that bothered us, and Fazl was hit--I didn’t know it at the time--that we didn’t see the guns they had dragged up. Or perhaps it was because they are so like the rocks in colour--and we didn’t expect they’d be here already. Anyway, we didn’t see them, and it makes me mad to think what a squeak you’ve had. I _ought_ to have seen them." "That’s bosh! it’s precious difficult to see anything at that speed. But go on." "We saw the men, of course, but we were soon out of range. The planes are simply riddled." "Fazl not much hurt, I hope?" "No: the bullet went through the fleshy part of his arm, and he didn’t say a word about it till we landed just now. On our way down we saw several teams of ponies at different parts of the track, bringing grub up, no doubt; and several bodies of mounted troops on the march; but never a sign of the guns. I flew on till we came to the place where the Major and I saw them: then thinking I must have missed them, I turned back. You may imagine how I felt when, about two miles away, I suppose, I heard the first shot. It’s so different from the sound of the machine gun that I couldn’t mistake it. I told Fazl to get ready to drop a bomb as soon as we came up to the guns. He did so, but I didn’t hear an explosion. He yelled out that it had fallen into the river, but of course we were past before there was time to shy another. I came back as quickly as I could, and my heart was in my mouth when I saw smoke in the compound. Luckily Fazl’s next shots were better, and jolly glad I am that we managed to stampede the fellows and give you a chance." "You were just in time, old man. They did more damage to the cliff than to us, though." "Yes: the path is simply heaped with rubbish. Coming back it was like scrambling over shingle. But a few hours’ work will clear the lot away. Now what’s the next thing?" "As it’s getting dusk I propose to withdraw the gun to the mine. But we must hold this breastwork as long as we can, and it occurs to me that if we alter its angle a little we can enfilade it from our own breastwork when it becomes necessary to fall back on that. It will still protect us from attack down stream, owing to the bend." "Isn’t it worth while to block up the track again?" "It would use up too much dynamite. Our stock is getting appallingly low. We may want it all for bombs. Besides, if we block up the track farther down we shan’t see our enemy." "But I can always scout in the aeroplane."