“Art must go to work quickly, then,” said Dick. “I want to get hold of the tribes before Bahram Khan comes back.”
“That will be to-morrow morning, when the armistice ends,” said Colonel Graham. “No, we have got you again now, North, and you won’t start out on any fools’ errands just yet, let me tell you.”
CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIRE ON THE HILL.
“Ah!” said Colonel Graham sharply. “So that is the little dodge, is it?”
He and Dick were standing in one of the gateway turrets as the day broke, and it was the sight of a long column of men marching into the town from the north-east that had called forth the exclamation.
“Look behind you!” said Dick laconically. A second force was moving along the south bank of the canal in the direction of the fort.
“Nice use to make of an armistice!” said the Colonel.
“Well, you didn’t expect anything else, did you? You see they have got us between two fires? That means a simultaneous attack on the gateway and the breastwork, at any rate, if not on all four sides at once. We have no time to lose.”
“Have you any suggestions to offer?” The Colonel spoke with the calmness of despair, and Dick glanced at him in surprise.
“Of course you know our possibilities better than I do, but I should certainly occupy Gun Hill, so as both to cover our west face, and enable us to deliver a flank attack on the fellows on the opposite bank if they come any nearer.”