As he watched it, Bob became aware that the afternoon was drawing towards evening. In an hour the valley would be gloomy, in two hours it would be shrouded in darkness. For the present, while daylight lasted, there was little fear of the enemy attacking. They would not face their own gun backed by the machine gun of the garrison. But he felt that with the fall of night the circumstances would be changed. His feeble searchlight scarcely illuminated the space between the bridge and the bend; beyond the bend it gave no light whatever. In the darkness the enemy might creep up to within a short distance of their captured breastwork and carry it with a determined rush, in spite of the gun. It was true that the narrowness of the track would allow the approach of only a few men abreast; but they could be supported by a constant succession of reinforcements, coming up like waves of the sea until the defenders were worn out. It seemed to Bob the prudent course to withdraw his men and the gun to the mine, and place the latter in position beside the machine gun. However, it was bad tactics to abandon a defensive position before retirement was absolutely necessary, so he decided to remain where he was for a little while longer, in the hope that Lawrence would land and, joining him, explain the actual condition of affairs down stream.
About a quarter of an hour after the aeroplane had passed, Bob saw Lawrence running down the track towards him.
"That's what I hoped you would do," were Lawrence's first words as they met. "Capture the guns, I mean."
"Yes, we've got one: the other's ruined and in the river. But we've had a narrow escape from being battered to pieces. Why didn't you begin bombing before?"
"I'll tell you. We were pretty well peppered, as you saw, when we flew past here down stream. It may have been because that bothered us, and Fazl was hit--I didn't know it at the time--that we didn't see the guns they had dragged up. Or perhaps it was because they are so like the rocks in colour--and we didn't expect they'd be here already. Anyway, we didn't see them, and it makes me mad to think what a squeak you've had. I ought to have seen them."
"That's bosh! it's precious difficult to see anything at that speed. But go on."
"We saw the men, of course, but we were soon out of range. The planes are simply riddled."
"Fazl not much hurt, I hope?"
"No: the bullet went through the fleshy part of his arm, and he didn't say a word about it till we landed just now. On our way down we saw several teams of ponies at different parts of the track, bringing grub up, no doubt; and several bodies of mounted troops on the march; but never a sign of the guns. I flew on till we came to the place where the Major and I saw them: then thinking I must have missed them, I turned back. You may imagine how I felt when, about two miles away, I suppose, I heard the first shot. It's so different from the sound of the machine gun that I couldn't mistake it. I told Fazl to get ready to drop a bomb as soon as we came up to the guns. He did so, but I didn't hear an explosion. He yelled out that it had fallen into the river, but of course we were past before there was time to shy another. I came back as quickly as I could, and my heart was in my mouth when I saw smoke in the compound. Luckily Fazl's next shots were better, and jolly glad I am that we managed to stampede the fellows and give you a chance."
"You were just in time, old man. They did more damage to the cliff than to us, though."