AS THEY PASSED THE CORNER ... SOME MEN SPRANG ON THEM.
They had just finished their breakfast when the sound of musketry was plainly heard.
"There is fighting going on," Angus exclaimed. "What can it mean? There are no troops in the city except the native guards at our house and the treasury next door. It is either a fight between two factions in the city, or they are attacking our place. It is maddening being fastened up here just at this moment. The news brought by that Afghan this morning that we were to be attacked must be true, though Sir Alexander altogether disbelieved it. He was in one of his happiest humours this morning, as to-day he was to obtain the goal of his hopes and to be the resident political officer, with all power in his hands. When he is in that mood he disbelieves all unpleasant tidings, while in his fits of depression he gives credit to every rumour that reaches his ear. Still, the house should be able to hold out against a mob until help arrives from the camp; but whether or not, my place should be by his side whatever comes of it."
"If there is really a rising in the town, sir, we are certainly safer here than we should be in the streets, or even in the house."
"That may be," Angus said impatiently, "but my duty is to be there." He paced restlessly up and down the room.
Presently Azim said: "I can't think how the men who seized us knew that we were coming along. It was quite by chance that you turned down the lane."
"They must have been close to us when we did so," Angus said, "and must at once have run round by another lane and posted themselves at the corner where we were seized. We were not walking fast, and there would have been time for them to get there before us if they had run. But why should they have taken this trouble? and why should they have prepared this place beforehand for our reception? It beats me altogether."
After the firing had continued for a few minutes it ceased; then they could hear a confused roar of shouting.