With considerable labour they managed to clear the rubbish with which the well was choked. The soil beneath it was dry, but on digging farther they struck the underground spring which had originally supplied the well. "That's first-rate!" cried Royce. "There's one part of our problem solved. We'll make an embankment, to keep the water within bounds, and have no further anxiety on that score." Their next step was to partition the building among the various sections of the company. Royce and Challis took up their quarters in the room in which the former had slept on the occasion of his first visit. The Hausas were given a larger chamber near the south wall, and the rest of the party a half-roofed enclosure at the other end. The rainy season not having commenced, the natives would not be likely to suffer from their partial exposure. The fort, small as it was, was too large to be defended by forty men against serious attack. To make the most of his garrison, Royce arranged that each man should have about three yards of wall to defend. If the enemy should pluck up resolution to make a simultaneous assault on all sides, they were numerous enough to throw eight or ten men against every one of the garrison, and the odds were more than sufficient for success. The only weapons available for B Company, as Challis called the released prisoners, were the tools included in their camp equipment--mallets, hatchets, hammers, a saw, and a few tent pegs. Though so ill provided, Royce thought that in day time the defence would have a sporting chance. The rifles could take toll of the enemy while they were advancing over the three or four hundred yards of fairly open ground beneath the fort; and even if the attack were pushed home to the walls, it would be possible to reinforce the men in the quarter where the assault was hottest. A night attack would be much more difficult to meet. Covered by the darkness, the enemy might approach to within a few yards of the walls without being detected, if they moved quietly; without suffering much loss, if they were heard. At the walls their numbers would tell far more effectually than in daylight. With such odds in their favour, it would seem impossible to keep them out. And if once they got in, the garrison must inevitably be overwhelmed. But the Englishmen had little fear of a night attack. It was more likely that the Tubus would move in the twilight of early morning. This would be little less formidable. They might creep a long way up the hill before they were seen, and the chance of checking their rush would be small.