him well into the cellar, took away the wooden steps, and then, with great
difficulty, also dragged the bodies of the fakir and the bear further in,
so that any one looking down into the hole from the outside would observe
nothing unusual.

Then, as he lay down, faint from his exertions, he could hear above the
tread of a great number of men, followed by a tremendous musketry fire
from the house. Once or twice he thought he heard some one come to the
door of the outhouse; but if so, no one entered.

Beyond rubbing Ned's hands, and putting cold stones to his forehead, Dick
could do nothing; but Ned breathed, and Dick felt strong hopes that he was
only stunned. In a quarter of an hour he showed signs of reviving, and in
an hour was able to hear from Dick an account of what had happened, and
where they were.

"We are in a horrible fix this time, Dick, and no mistake; my head aches
so, I can hardly think; let us be quiet for a bit, and we will both try to
think what is best to be done. There is no hurry to decide. No one is
likely to come down into this place, but we may as well creep well behind
this pile of wood and straw, and then we shall be safe."

Dick assented, and for an hour they lay quiet, Ned's regular breathing
soon telling his brother that he had dropped off to sleep. Then Dick very
quietly crept out again from their hiding-place.

"It is a grand idea," he said to himself; "magnificent. It's nasty,
horribly nasty; but after three weeks of what we have gone through in the
Residency one can see and do things which it would have made one almost
sick to think of a month back; and as our lives depend upon it we must not