I stared at him, and seemed to come back to life again with a start.
"No, nothing serious, Sergeant. The door must have struck me as it fell--my whole left side and arm are numb. We drove them, didn't we?"
"You can bet we did, sir, but my fellows got here just in time. They didn't make much of a fight along my side, so when I heard that door crash we come a-runnin'."
"Oh, it was you then. That's about the last I remember. Where is their reserve? Didn't they come in?"
"I guess not," peering out through the opening. "There's no signs of 'em, so far as I can see, but there ain't no air, an' the smoke hangs close to the ground."
As he said, it was useless endeavoring to perceive what was happening without, the powder smoke clinging to the earth, and hiding everything from view. Yet I realized what must have occurred; the dead bodies in sight proved how severely the assaulting column had suffered, and no doubt the entire force had been disorganized, and sent helter-skelter for safety. Yet they would come back--either they or others. This muss must be cleaned up; this opening closed. After that we could attend our dead and wounded. I gave a dozen swift orders, and Miles instantly took command. The imprisoned bodies were dragged out from underneath the door, the heavy log taken into the hall, the door itself torn from its remaining hinges and forced back into position, the log, one end resting against the stairs, being utilized as a brace. If anything it was now stronger than before for purposes of defence. We had barely completed this work when Mahoney came out into the hall, his head bound up with a blood-soaked rag.
"A foine, lively shindy, Leftenant," he said, grinning amiably. "Bedad, but Oi thought they had us that last toime--Oi did that." He glanced about curiously. "An' ye must hav' had it hot in here too."
"It was hand to hand, Sergeant, and we lost some men--four dead. How did you fare along your side of the house?"
"Three kilt, an' maybe a dozen wounded. Oi got chipped up myself, but only the skin av me. Those lads come up fierce, sorr, an' they'd 'a' made it too, only fer our ravolvers. We must have shot a dozen of 'em right in the winders."
"And the rest of the house--do you know how they came out?"