"That's all right," said Lawrence. "I was only wishing I had brought more of our bombs with me. I might have checked those hillmen and given you more time."
"But that would have involved your remaining in this neighbourhood, and you are wanted at the mine. A bomb or two dropped in flying over would have scattered them for the moment, but they'd have collected again as soon as you were past. I don't know how much paraffin we've got to give you. No: there's better work for you. You'll convey the Chief's message to your brother: hold the gorge for a week at all costs. I'll do my best to get reinforcements through. It's vitally important to keep those Kalmucks in check. The fate of India hangs in the balance."
Preparations were made for the evacuation of the house on the following morning. Having taken on board more than enough paraffin to carry him back to the mine, together with a dozen rifles and several thousand rounds of ammunition, Lawrence bade the officers good-bye, and started immediately after breakfast. A few minutes after his departure a dull boom proclaimed that the tower had been blown up and the garrison was on the march for the south.
Major Endicott had advised him to fly high so as to avoid the risk of further accident if he should encounter the enemy. Some ten miles from the tower he caught sight of them: they appeared like an army of ants crawling on the ground. A few shots were fired at him, but he was far out of effective range, and in a few minutes disappeared from their view.
A little uneasy at first as to the staying power of the paraffin, he was soon reassured. In less than an hour he struck the western extremity of the valley, and he flew down it at full speed, maintaining a great altitude in case Nurla Bai and his party should be still on the track or in the hills above.
He had almost reached the mine when he heard sounds of rapid firing. The attack, then, had begun in earnest.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND
DITTA LAL INTERPRETS
During his brother's absence Bob had been energetic in organizing the defence. He threw an entrenchment across the track beneath the shoulder of the cliff, a short distance from the mass of broken rock thrown down by the explosion of dynamite. By this means he hoped to interpose an effective obstacle to the enemy if they, without waiting for the track to be cleared, should attempt to climb round and slip by up the valley. Nurla Bai's swimming feat showed him that the river could be crossed otherwise than by the drawbridge, and the assemblage of any considerable number of men on the southward side might be a serious menace. True, the enemy could hardly cross in daylight in face of opposition from the wall of the compound; but remembering how Nurla Bai had got over and made his way by the cantilever pathway to the mine, Bob saw that a similar movement might be attempted when the attention of the garrison was held by an attack from down-stream. In that case he would have to dispatch men whom he could ill spare to guard the aeroplane platform and perhaps to destroy the pathway constructed with such toil. As a precautionary measure he stationed three men on the aeroplane platform day and night.
Further, in order not to be at too great a disadvantage in case of a sudden rush in the darkness, he contrived a makeshift searchlight out of a large photographic camera of his uncle's and a reflector of polished tin. He hoped that it would not be necessary to use it often, for the stock of calcium carbide was running low, and he had no other illuminant than acetylene gas and paraffin candles.