Aghast at the fate of their comrades the others faltered. But Munro did not wait to be attacked; stepping over the prostrate bodies he followed up the advantage gained, and the pandies shrank from that fatal sword. Joining forces once more, the sturdy band reached the house, and, standing with backs to the wall, they poured volley after volley—irregularly, but coolly and rapidly—into the dense, disorganized rabble, until at length the barricades were taken from the door, and one by one they were admitted.
CHAPTER VIII
The Fight in the Arsenal
“They are having a hard fight for it,” Ted observed to Lieutenant Lowthian. They stood on the walls that surrounded the courtyard of the fort, watching the progress of their comrades through the crowded streets. Lowthian nodded, but, absorbed by the struggle, made no reply.
“Yes, and they’ve left us here to be killed like rabbits,” muttered Tynan.
“Shut up! Don’t whine!” Lowthian scornfully exhorted him.
Ted’s anxiety had so far been largely centred in the safety of Ethel Woodburn, the charge placed under his protection; and having rightly guessed that the Commissioner’s house, surrounded by the clamouring mob, through whose masses Munro was breaking his way, contained the Europeans of Aurungpore, a load was lifted from his mind. The rebels had quitted the immediate vicinity of the fort, and the comparative tranquillity close at hand had made him forget his own danger. Tynan’s remark and Lowthian’s curtness startled him.
“They won’t be long in escorting the women here,” he cheerfully opined. “And a hundred of us ought to hold this place easily.”
“Yes, but twenty cannot,” Tynan sneered. “If it’s as much as Munro can do to force his way through now, how’s he going to manage it with a crowd of women to protect?”