When he told me that in
future he would drive the tunnel our shift himself, he said, 'That
will enable you to take your place on the roof, Wilson, and you
must remember you are firing for both of us, so don't throw away
a shot.' It is awfully rough on him, isn't it? Well, goodby, Miss
Hannay," and Wilson hurried off to the roof.
CHAPTER XVI.
The next four days made a great alteration in the position of the
defenders in the fortified house.
The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round the
terrace had been knocked away in several places, the gate was in
splinters; but as the earth from the tunnel had been all emptied
against the sandbags, it had grown to such a thickness that the
defense was still good here. But in the wall, against which one
of the new batteries had steadily directed its fire, there was
a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing in size, and would ere
long be practicable for assault. Many of the shots passing through
this had struck the house itself. Some of these had penetrated,
and the room in the line of fire could no longer be used.
There had been several casualties. The young civilian Herbert had been
killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he was lying.
Captain Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the natives had
been killed by the first shot which penetrated the lower room. Mr.
Hunter was prostrate with fever, the result of exposure to the sun,
and several others had received wounds more or less severe from
fragments of stone; but the fire of the defenders was as steady as
at first, and the loss of the natives working the guns was severe,
and they no longer ventured to fire from the gardens and shrubberies
round the walls.
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