A few minutes later Dick exclaimed:
"How stupid! We can easily test whether there is any one there, Surajah;" and, taking up a piece of thatch he pushed it suddenly across one of the loopholes.
No shot followed the action, and he went round the hut, and repeated the experiment at each of them.
"They have all gone," he said confidently. "Had they been outside, they would certainly have fired directly the light was obscured."
Standing a short distance back from the end window, he looked out between the crossbeams.
"Hurrah!" he shouted. "There they go up the road. They are a quarter of a mile away. They are not more than half as strong as they were when they came down. They are carrying eight or ten figures on their shoulders, on litters, or doors."
"I don't see the cavalry," Surajah said, as he joined him.
"No. It is likely enough that they may be in hiding among the huts opposite, and are waiting, in hopes that we may be foolish enough to take it for granted that they are all gone, and pull down the bars of the door. I expect they will stay until they see our troop coming up the valley."
They continued to look out from the window, from which they had now removed the bars. Half an hour later, Dick exclaimed:
"There they go, up that side of the valley. I have no doubt they see our troop, and that in a few minutes we shall hear them coming."