Saunderson and his twenty Red Marines were told off to man the harbour breast-works, and Williams and his remaining ten Marine Artillerymen were to hold the Log Redoubt.
Every man was told off to his own special loophole, and each man laid his rifle and greatcoat on the ground behind it, the precious water-breakers were taken into the gun-pit, and the men's blankets, covered with the gun tarpaulin, were piled to form a little "zareba" in the middle of the plateau.
Meanwhile the signalmen had returned, bringing back two of the stragglers, and reported that the Strong Arm's party were already landing from the Sylvia.
It was broad daylight now, and presently the remaining two stragglers came into camp, looking very much ashamed of themselves.
For an hour both officers and men had worked like horses, and all this time the cold wind swept up to them the noises of the waking town at their feet—the dull drumming of Chinese gongs and the clanging of the ships' bells—but nothing else disturbed their work till suddenly the raucous shriek of a steam hooter startled them.
"That is the signal to start work. The coolies will be up here in half an hour," chuckled the Commander.
"What are you going to do when they do come up?" asked Williams. "If we caught them and prevented them from carrying the news back it would be a good thing. Every few minutes is valuable."
"All right, Williams, we'll try."
Then a signalman reported that the second party had already commenced the ascent, bringing with them the Sylvia's two Maxim guns.
At the same moment the sentry on the zigzag path below came running up. "Please, sir, there are fifty or sixty natives coming up from the town."