And then the recollection of his uncle's recent death caused a revulsion of feeling. It was quite unreasonable to shrink from the thought of benefiting by Mr. Appleton's decease; but affection and high-minded instinct sometimes get the better of reason, and he dismissed the subject, still with a vague hope that his uncle would even yet return to his own.
At midnight Lawrence came with a squad of men to relieve him.
"All's well then?" he said.
"Yes; I haven't heard a murmur."
"Well, cut off and get a sleep. I'm good for a spell till daylight. Shan Tai has given me a splendid feed. We're lucky in our men, Bob. As I was eating I overheard Shan Tai talking with Chunda Beg. 'What you tinkee?' says Shan Tai. They'd evidently been discussing the situation. 'I say not one of the dogs will ever poke his nose within our walls,' said the khansaman. 'When the huzur told me that two boys were coming to live here I was sick in mind. Some of the Feringhi boys call us niggers, and speak to us as if we were mud. Our sahibs are not so. They do not sniff and curse and use us as if we were beasts and not men. What say you, cook man?' 'Say what you say allo lighto,' says Shan Tai. 'Likee young massa plenty muchee. Big lot fightee men come all-same. No can fightee big lot long time.' 'Wah!' says Chunda. 'The two sahibs are worth thousands of those dogs of Kalmucks, and if Allah keeps them alive we shall smite and smite until the Sirkar sends help. Only give them good food, cook man.' 'Makee chow-chow first-chop,' says Shan Tai, and the old chap gave a chuckle. He's a jolly good sort."
Lawrence had said that they were lucky in their men; it did not occur to him that the fragment of conversation he reported showed rather that the men thought themselves lucky in their masters.
The day broke, and still the enemy had made no movement. As soon as it was light Bob had the field gun dragged over the bridge to the breastwork. Lawrence reported that the enemy had begun to erect a new rampart some distance down the track.
"They surely don't imagine that we're going to take the offensive," he said.
"No. It probably means that they'll snipe at us from behind it. Go and get your breakfast and come back as soon as you can."
Bob considered whether to interfere with the enemy's work, but decided that he had better husband his ammunition. Some two hours later, after Lawrence's return, the enemy began firing across their new breastwork. At the same time a number of them were seen skirmishing along the track, making short rushes from rock to rock. The track itself was only thirty or forty feet wide, straight and comparatively smooth. But the cliff face was very rugged, affording a certain amount of cover. Skirmishing from point to point, where the cliff jutted out or receded, or where single fragments of rock had fallen to the side of the track, the enemy advanced under cover of the fire from their breastwork until they had come about halfway to the position of the defenders. Some scrambled up the cliff here and there for a few yards so as to obtain a better view of the men sheltered by the entrenchment. Bob refused to allow his men to make a general reply to their fire. He knew that they could not approach beyond a certain point, the track being open and the amount of cover diminishing as they drew nearer. Now and then, when one of them advanced too far ahead of his fellows, he permitted the best marksman to try his skill, and two or three of the enemy were hit. One of his own men also, incautiously exposing himself, fell back with a gash in his arm. Except for this, the day passed without casualties, and the relative positions of the two parties were the same.