"Shall I begin to-night, uncle?"
"There is no occasion for that. The enemy have not arrived yet, and indeed no one would dream of attempting to ascend the craig unaided. I fancy they will try an open assault to begin with. When they find that fails they may try surprise."
About midnight an officer reported that a dull confused sound could be heard down the valley. The colonel took a couple of signal rockets, with which one of the boxes brought by Percy from England was filled, and proceeded, accompanied by his nephew, Nand Chund, and four of his guard, to the wall at the lower end of the rock. Lanterns placed on the ground were burning here, and a party of artillery-men were standing by the four guns looking down the valley.
"How far do you think they are away?" the colonel asked the officer in command there.
"A party of them have just crossed the wooden bridge over the stream, sahib. I heard the trampling of their horses upon it distinctly."
"That is fourteen hundred and thirteen yards from the foot of the rock. Drive those wedges a little farther. That is right. I cut those nicks upon them the other day when we had got the exact depression required to lay the guns on the bridge. Now let us wait until another body of them are crossing."
Three or four minutes later the sound in the distance became suddenly louder.
"Now, Nand Chund, fire that rocket. I think you have got it about the right angle."
The rocket flew up in the air, and burst some distance away throwing out a dozen fire-balls. Their light enabled the governor to see right down the valley. Some slight alteration in the direction of the guns was made, and then one after another they were fired. Another rocket was now thrown up, and by its light the dark mass of men on or behind the bridge could be seen to be broken up and retreating. Almost at the same moment four guns were fired from an upper bastion.
"That is grape, Percy," the colonel said. The officer there was told to wait till the men could see a body of troops advancing up the valley. "Listen, there go the cavalry scampering back as hard as the horses can lay their feet to the ground. I doubt whether we shall hear anything more of them to-night."