"I don't know, corporal. Two or three times I have thought that I heard noises, and twice I have challenged."
"What sort of noise?"
"Once it seemed to be a crack, like a dried stick when some one treads on it. The other time it was as if a stone had been dislodged."
"I will wait with you," Will said. "Two pairs of ears are better than one."
Again there was a slight sound heard.
"I don't like to fire," Will said. "The alarm would spread, and the whole camp get under arms. There is something moving, I am convinced; but it may be only a stray bullock. I will go forward, and see if I can make it out; and do you stand ready to fire, if I am attacked.
"After doing so, fall back on the picket, at once. If the enemy are in force, hold the hut to the last. In ten minutes you will have help from the village, behind."
Holding his rifle advanced, in readiness to fire, William Gale made his way forward, cautiously, towards the spot whence the noise seemed to proceed. When he was some forty yards in advance of the sentry, a number of figures rose suddenly from some bushes, and fired. Will fired, and saw the man at whom he aimed go down but, at the same instant, three or four guns were discharged; and he fell to the ground, shot through the leg. There was a rush of men towards him. A tulwar was waved, and fell, with a crushing blow, on his shoulder; and he became insensible.
When he recovered consciousness he was being carried along, a man holding his arms and another his legs. The pain was excruciating, and he fainted again; after hearing, during his brief period of consciousness, a sharp fusilade of musketry, which told him that his comrades were defending the hut against the enemy.
When again he came to his senses, it was daylight. He was lying in a small room, and an old woman was applying bandages to the sword cut on his shoulder. Although he did not know it, he was ten miles from the spot where the attack had been made.