"Don't you think, Sahib, that it would be safer to kill the sentries?"
"Safer or not, Surajah, we will not do it. At present, they have done us no harm. They are only acting as their officer ordered, and we have no grudge against them. When they take to shooting at us, we must shoot at them; but to kill this sentry would be nothing short of murder."
After waiting a few minutes longer, Dick said:
"We had better be off, now. If we were to wait longer, we should have another fellow getting up."
They rose quietly to their feet, made their way to the door, and opened it noiselessly. The sentry was standing, leaning on his long matchlock, a few feet away. Suddenly a voice behind exclaimed, "Who is that?"
The sentry was in the act of turning round, when Dick sprang upon him, and grasped him by the throat. No cry came from the man's lips, but the gun fell from his grasp, as he clutched convulsively at Dick's wrists, and went off as it fell.
"Pick it up," Dick shouted, "and run."
He released his grip from the man's throat, snatched the bandolier from his shoulder, and, tripping his feet from under him, threw him heavily to the ground, and then turned to run.
The whole had occupied but a few seconds, but as he started a soldier ran out from the hut, shouting loudly. He had a gun in his hand. Dick changed his mind, turned, threw himself upon him, wrenched the gun from his hold, and, as the man staggered back, struck him with his right hand under the chin.
The man fell back through the open door, as if shot. Dick seized the handle and closed it, and then ran, at full speed, towards the foot of the steps. They were but some twenty yards away.