the guns. After fifty yards' walking, they dropped on their hands and
knees. Although the guns had been absolutely silent since their fire
ceased at ten o'clock, a dropping musketry fire from the houses and walls
on either side had, as usual, continued. This indicated to the boys pretty
accurately the position of the guns. Crawling forward foot by foot, they
reached the little ridge which sheltered the guns from the battery in
Gubbins' garden.

The guns themselves they could not see, for behind them was a house, and,
except against the sky line, nothing was visible. They themselves were, as
they knew, in a line between Gubbins' house and any one who might be
standing at the guns, so that they would not show against the sky. They
could hear talking among the houses on either side of the guns, and could
see the light of fires, showing that while some of their enemies were
keeping up a dropping fire, others were passing the night, as is often the
native custom, round the fires, smoking and cooking. There was a faint
talk going on ahead, too, beyond the guns; but the enemy had had too
severe a lesson of the accuracy of the English rifle-fire to dare to light
a fire there.

Having taken in the scene, the boys moved forward, inch by inch. Presently
Ned put his hand on something which, for a moment, made him start back; an
instant's thought, however, reassured him; it was a man, but the hardness
of the touch told that it was not a living one. Crawling past it, the lads
found other bodies lying thickly, and then they touched a wheel. They had
arrived at the guns, and the bodies were those of the men shot down a few
hours before in the act of loading.

Behind the guns a number of artillerymen were, as the boys could hear,
sitting and talking; but the guns themselves stood alone and unguarded. A