“Better make our plans, then, as to which way to go. Study it all by daylight with our glasses.”
“Needn’t do that,” said Drummond eagerly. “I know. We’ll go straight up the steep gully that I followed when I went after the bears, it’s awfully rough, but it’s the best way, for the niggers never camp there; it’s too wet for them.”
“Very well,” said the Colonel; and the two young officers went straight through the scorching sunshine, which turned the great court of the fort into an oven, to where Bracy lay panting with the heat, with Gedge doing his best to make life bearable by applying freshly wrung-out towels to his aching brow.
“News for you, old chap,” said Drummond in a whisper. “But send that fellow of yours away.”
“There is no need,” said Bracy faintly. “I can’t spare him, and he’s better worth trusting than I am.”
“Oh yes, we can trust Gedge,” said Roberts in a low tone, while the lad was fetching a fresh bucket of water from the great well-like hole in the court, through which an underground duct from the river ran, always keeping it full of clear water fresh from the mountains, but in these days heated by the sun as it flamed down.
The news was imparted by Drummond, and Bracy shook his head.
“It would be glorious,” he said; “but you ought not to go. Graves mustn’t let a dozen men run such risks for the sake of us poor fellows. It would be madness. We must wait for the cool nights.”
“He will let us go,” said Drummond; “and we can do it.”
“No,” said Bracy, speaking with more energy, and he turned his head to Roberts. “I beg you will not think of such a thing, old lad,” he said earnestly.