The barrel was cautiously advanced until nearly its whole length was visible. Had the ladies remained by the door, they would have seen the murderous face of a fierce Ghoojur, as he wrinkled his brow in the effort to pierce the twilight within.
He was still glaring like a beast of prey, when the sharp crack of a pistol rang through the apartment, and with a rasping scream the Ghoojur went over backward, his skull bored by a bullet from the pistol of Luchman the guide.
The latter caught a faint sound just as the party retreated from the front, and, suspecting something of the kind, he ran back just in time to perforate the Asiatic, who had shoved his gun so far into the interior that it dropped from his nerveless grasp as he went over backward, and fell with a ringing sound upon the flinty floor below.
"God has sent us another weapon," was the cool remark of Luchman, who strode across the apartment, picked up the gun, and walked outside without another word.
When a quarter of an hour passed and brought no news from the front, the ladies timidly ventured out again.
"All danger is ended for the present," said Mr. Hildreth; "they got ready to charge, but changed their mind."
"Are they not likely to change it again?" asked his wife.
"Not to the extent of opening battle with us: why should they do so, when they can attain the same end without the least risk to themselves?"
At this moment Luchman straightened up, and, compressing his thin lips, said,
"It is in vain, sahibs; it is death for us to stay here longer; the lives of you all are worth more than the Star of India."