Just then there arose a new cause for alarm. The good woman came crying from the other part of the building. Rod heard what she said and was able to understand, although the other two were left in the dark.
“What’s happened next, Rod?” demanded Josh, with the air of a veteran; for Josh often affected to liken himself to those old worthies who, when sorely beset, never asked about the number of their foes, but where they could be found, so that they might attack them hip and thigh.
“She says they’ve set fire to the house, and that the whole rear of the same is already blazing fiercely,” Rod explained.
Hanky Panky’s face was a study. Of course it was not really fear that gripped him so fiercely; but nevertheless the boy had a peaked look about the eyes, and watched Rod eagerly, as though hoping the other would eventually find some way of extricating them from this new predicament.
“Now here’s a pretty kettle of fish,” growled Josh; “house afire, and we can’t even rush out to throw water on the flames, just because there’s a lot of cowardly skunks waiting to spit us like we were fowls. Whee! what’re we going to do about it, Rod, tell me? I’ll sally out and try to create a diversion, if you say the word.”
Perhaps Josh honestly meant it, but Rod only laughed at him.
“Don’t be silly, Josh,” was what the other said; “you’d have about as much chance against those half-dozen Uhlans as a baby might. All we can do is to hold tight, and hope the zouaves will get along before it’s too late. But if they do try to smash their way in we’re going to fight; hear that?”
“You just bet we are; every time,” said Josh, who had found a heavy poker and was swinging it around in a way that made poor Hanky Panky duck every time it barely missed his devoted head.
He had hardly finished saying those few expressive words than there was an awful crash, and the front door, struck by some sort of battering ram, seemed to be partly knocked from its hinges. The Uhlans were apparently determined to enter; and the more opposition they met the greater their desire seemed to become.