"The dogs are brave," he said to his counsellors, as he admiringly watched the charge of the naval brigade; "but they'll never swarm over my palisades. If they do, my trusty warriors will wet their spears in the blood of my foemen, and their bodies shall be cast to the vultures." As he finished speaking, the thin white line halted and poured in a volley at close range. Then it swept forward again, a ringing British cheer from over a hundred throats rushing out like a blast from amid the rolling battle smoke. Two bullets rang by close to Sooltan Shah's gaudy and voluminous turban, and one of the Arabs standing close beside him sprang three feet into the air and fell dead at the chief's feet--shot through the heart. Sooltan's face was convulsed with passion. Seizing a musket, the butt of which was inlaid with ivory, from one of his attendants, he levelled it at the gunnery lieutenant and fired. The slug struck the ground a couple of feet in front of the officer. "Give me another musket," roared the chief; "my second shot is always a deadly one." [Illustration: (Jack in prison hut)] Again he levelled the piece and fired. Mr. Howard fell, his drawn sword flying from his grasp. "One chieftain has bitten the dust, ha! ha!" exclaimed Sooltan, with savage glee. "Now is Ahmed's death avenged, and we shall see these white men fleeing before us like a herd of gemsbok before a hungry lion." "Some of the dogs are beneath the gateway. Shoot them down!" cried one of the Arabs excitedly. Scarcely had the words escaped his lips than a terrific explosion rent the air, and chocks of timber, stones, and dust were hurled upwards with great force. Sooltan and those standing around him were thrown violently to the ground, and a shower of debris fell around them. A strong odour of gunpowder filled the air, and volumes of grey smoke slowly drifted away on the wind. A detachment of seamen-gunners had blown up the barricaded gateway, and thus created a wide gap, through which a party of stormers swept in to the attack with ringing cheers. Sooltan Shah had only been partially stunned. The desperate courage of the man asserted itself in spite of the rude awakening he had received. Seizing a weighty spear, he rapidly thundered out some orders to those around him, and then, with hasty steps and a lowering brow, rushed down at the head of his men to endeavour to stem the onward rush of the "Forte's" men. Meanwhile other mines had been sprung, and at several points the active sailors were seen swarming over the stockades like a troop of wild cats. Some of these, however, were shot down and others wounded by the long spears of the natives.