“It is as I suspected,” he reported. “So I have offered to take over the duty of looking after their horses, which will permit all their forces to engage. Also, we are going to lend our repeaters to the revolutionaries, as Jepthah says there are a number of men in the ranks familiar with their use. Here they come now to receive them,” he added, as Jepthah advanced with two others to receive the rifles of Mr. Hampton and the boys. “So hand them over, along with your ammunition.” “But Mr. Hampton,” protested Frank, “I want to have a hand. Think of old Bob.” His voice broke. “I know,” said the older man, kindly. “But the pass must be forced if the revolutionaries are to gain the interior. The raiders, they tell me, were met here by a force of two score Athensian Janissaries, who beat off Captain Amanassar’s first attack. If we are to be of any help to Bob, we must let these men clear the way. And in doing that, you might lose your life uselessly, if you were to take active part in the attack. Come, now, hand over your rifle.” Reluctantly, Frank and Jack consented, after which with the Arabs they went to relieve the horse guard. Mr. Hampton, however, joined Captain Amanassar, who stayed in the plain directing operations. CHAPTER XVIII. A DARK HOUR. Much of the fight for possession of the gateway to the pass was out of sight of the boys. For a time, they could see the figures of the dismounted revolutionaries creeping over the rocky road, hugging the walls, until they reached the barrier of fallen Janissaries and horses. Across this barrier there flashed a continuous fire of weapons for some time, with no advantage to either side, so far as was apparent to those left in the plain. Then a new element entered the situation with a distant sound of rifle fire, as the party of revolutionaries who had been sent to the west came into action at the rear of the Janissaries. These revolutionaries, the boys later learned, had clambered like goats up the face of the cliff and gained a position on the rocky western wall of the pass, from which they were enabled to assail the Janissaries in the rear. A sudden burst of cheering in the distance was followed by the swarming of the revolutionaries in the pass across the wall of dead and wounded. Man after man disappeared without opposition, passing across the fallen and vanishing into the pass beyond the bend. Then for some time the sound of firing continued, growing ever more distant, until it no longer came back to those below. Once more stillness descended in the hot desert and the narrow pass, now lying in shadow as the sun wheeled to the west and the steep western wall of rock cut off its rays. Only the horses, the Arabs on camel back circling slowly about them, Captain Amanassar, Jepthah and Mr. Hampton, three tiny figures afoot at the base of the pass, and the dead, remained.