“What is that, Bathurst?”
“I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold this place for a time, sooner or later we must either surrender or the place be carried by storm.”
Major Hannay nodded.
“That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last grant us terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to escape or die fighting.”
“It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our position grows more and more desperate they will close round us, and although we might have possibly got through last night, our chances of doing so when they have once broken into the inclosure and begin to attack the house itself are very slight. A few of us who can speak the language well might possibly in disguise get away, but it would be impossible for the bulk of us to do so.”
“I quite see that, Bathurst.”
“My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine; that is, to drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on steadily as far as we can. I should say that we have ten days or a fortnight before us before matters get to an extremity, and in that time we ought to be able to get, working night and day, from fifty to a hundred yards beyond the wall, aiming at a clump of bushes. There is a large one in Farquharson's compound, about a hundred yards off. Then, when things get to the worst, we can work upwards, and come out on a dark night. We might leave a long fuse burning in the magazine, so that there should be an explosion an hour or two after we had left. There is enough powder there to bring the house down, and the Sepoys might suppose that we had all been buried in the ruins.”
“I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you think, Doctor?”
“Capital,” the Doctor said. “It is a light sandy soil, and we should be able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many can work together, do you think, Bathurst?”
“I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if necessary, prop the roof, with some of the natives to carry out the earth. If we have three shifts, each shift would go on twice in the twenty-four hours; that would be four hours on and eight hours off.”