"By Jinks!" cried Mackenzie. "Where did you find 'em?"
"In a little room beyond. There's a crowd of things of all sorts--pikes, swords, a small armoury."
"A jolly good find!" cried Mackenzie, "But you haven't got our rifles!"
"No; I didn't see them. There's no ammunition for these ancient muskets, but they'll come in useful, perhaps, as clubs."
"No doubt about that," said Forrester, looking up from the head-dress. "It sounds like coming to a fight, Mac."
From without came the dull hubbub of distant voices. It was clear that the whole community was roused. The windows were too high in the wall for any of the party to see what was going on outside, but the increasing noise told that the priests had left their lodgings, and Mackenzie guessed that they were massed in the garden beyond the locked gate. They could know nothing of what had happened within the pagoda. No doubt they were bewildered and alarmed, wondering why the foreigners who had dared to profane the sacred floors of the August and Venerable had not instantly been shattered to dust by the omnipotent Eye.
"Will they scale the wall and attack us?" asked Jackson.
"Maybe, when they discover that we're in possession," said Mackenzie. "But at present you may be sure they're just wandered. They don't know what to do until they get word of the Old Man. What's happened to him?"
At this moment a fierce howl of fury penetrated the walls.
"What's up?" exclaimed Forrester. "Get on my back, Mac, and look out of the window."