"Just as you like, sergeant, but I feel sure there is no occasion for it. Still, after what has happened, it may perhaps be wise to do so."
"Well, Mike," Desmond said, when they were again alone, "the campaign has opened with spirit. This is something like that journey with the Baron de Pointdexter, when we expected to be attacked every minute."
"Well, we got through that all right, your honour, and it is hard if we don't get through this."
At six o'clock, a volley of musketry was fired.
"They are practising early, sir," Mike said.
"It can't be that, Mike. It is too close. They would go beyond the outer works to practise, and, by the sound, it is certainly much nearer than that, though possibly just outside the walls."
"I will go out and enquire, your honour. When one is at war, it is as well to know exactly what the enemy are doing."
"Take one of the troopers with you, Mike. Pierre speaks Spanish well."
Mike returned in an hour.
"They have shot all the prisoners we took yesterday," he said. "I hear they held a sort of court martial in the evening, at the governor's. It did not sit more than ten minutes. They were all found guilty of fraud and treachery, and were shot this morning."