He and Dick were standing in one of the gateway turrets as the day broke, and it was the sight of a long column of men marching into the town from the north-east that had called forth the exclamation. “Look behind you!” said Dick laconically. A second force was moving along the south bank of the canal in the direction of the fort. “Nice use to make of an armistice!” said the Colonel. “Well, you didn’t expect anything else, did you? You see they have got us between two fires? That means a simultaneous attack on the gateway and the breastwork, at any rate, if not on all four sides at once. We have no time to lose.” “Have you any suggestions to offer?” The Colonel spoke with the calmness of despair, and Dick glanced at him in surprise. “Of course you know our possibilities better than I do, but I should certainly occupy Gun Hill, so as both to cover our west face, and enable us to deliver a flank attack on the fellows on the opposite bank if they come any nearer.” “We have no guns, unfortunately, as you know, and worse than that, we have not men enough to send out a detachment to the hill and hold the place at the same time. Look there!” he handed Dick his field-glass. “The buildings facing us are packed with men ready to advance in response to any movement on our part.” “I see. But at any rate we can line the earthwork and the roofs and our bank of the canal with sharpshooters, and keep the enemy at a distance on the south face?” “No doubt we could, but for one thing. Do you recollect that we have now been besieged over a month? What is the natural corollary?” “That the ammunition is running out?” “Exactly. There is so little left for the rifles that I have forbidden it to be used except for picking off any specially troublesome snipers. We are slightly better off as regards the carbines, but a single day of hard fighting would leave us with nothing but cold steel.” “Good heavens!” said Dick, beginning to pace backwards and forwards in the narrow limits of the turret; “and with the men they are bringing up now they can overwhelm us by sheer weight of numbers. You see it’s the Nalapur army that is marching in? No doubt Bahram Khan was on his way to fetch it when I saw him in the Pass. Now, either the Amir has been got rid of, or he has decided to throw in his lot with his precious nephew. If he’s dead, it’s all up, but if not, there’s just a chance. You said he seemed to turn reckless when he thought he had done for me; well, I may be able to sober him down again.” “You are not thinking of venturing into their camp?” “Scarcely, since Bahram Khan would very soon repair his unfortunate omission if I did. But if he doesn’t propose a parley, you must, and insist on the Amir’s taking part in it. Then I will show myself suddenly, and see whether there’s any hope of working upon the old man’s feelings.”