A white cloth tied round the barrel of a musket had been poked round the corner.

"A truce, sahibs!" a voice called in Urdu. "We wish to treat with you and save your lives. May I step forward in safety?"

"One man may," Tynan replied, "but he will be a dead man should there be any sign of treachery."

"Sahib, there will be none; I give my word of honour."

So saying, Pir Baksh stepped round the bend, armed only with a smile that he doubtless intended to be ingratiating.

"Ye are gallant warriors," he began, when Ted, interrupting the flow of words, ordered the rascal to speak in English, not Urdu. The subadar showed the whites of his eyes as he smiled, and grimly shook his head.

For the benefit of the Rajputs he resumed in the vernacular:

"Ye cannot hope to hold out much longer, so let there be no further bloodshed. Surrender the fort and we will spare your lives."

"What do you think, Russell?" Tynan hurriedly whispered. "Do you believe they mean it?"

"Not they!" was Ted's scornful reply.

"Perhaps they do, though. I'll ask him what they intend to do with us."

"Why, you can't mean to give up the magazine under any conditions?" our astonished ensign demanded, his eyes contracting as he stared at his senior officer.

"They'll have it all the same if they kill us, though," Tynan muttered, lowering his eyes, unable to meet his comrade's gaze. "So what's the odds. May as well save our lives while there's a chance."

He thereupon made answer to the jemadar.

"If we surrender, what will you do with us?"

"We will keep you captive, but promise you your lives," came the prompt reply.

"Will you allow us to join our friends over yonder? If not, we shall still fight, and we are not so helpless as you think." Tynan was not quite a coward, and he used the threat with some show of spirit.

"I cannot promise that without consulting my friends."

So saying, the subadar retired for further instructions. Ted had had time for reflection.

"Tynan," he announced, "I sha'n't agree to surrender. We've no right to do it! Look what a lift it would give them if they could get all these arms and ammunition."

Our ensign had quite made up his mind what to do. If his death would make more secure the position of his comrades in the town he was prepared to die. There was satisfaction in the reflection that Ethel Woodburn would know that he had been staunch to the last. Poor Tynan had no friends among the officers of his corps, and consequently there was nothing to uplift his soul above the fear of death, and he had clutched eagerly at the straw of hope held out by Pir Baksh.

"Well, they'll get it all the same after they've done for us," he bitterly replied. "May as well live to fight another day. I was a fool ever to come to this accursed land. What right had Munro to leave us here?"

Before Ted could reply the white flag was thrust round the corner and the subadar returned.

"We agree to what you ask," said he. "We will permit you to rejoin your friends in safety."

"I tell you I shall not agree to surrender," the junior ensign angrily declared.

"You fool! What's the good of holding out any longer? Well, I shall surrender, and I'm chief here."

"You're not! You're under Munro's orders, and those were to hold the fort until he sends help. If you attempt to surrender you're a traitor."

Ted turned to Ambar Singh and the sepoys.

"Do not listen to the dogs," said he. "Let us fight to the end, as your forefathers did against the Moguls. They are not to be trusted; they will assuredly slay us if we yield."

The sepoys stoutly assented. They had little faith in the Mohammedans, who were seeking their lives,--the men who had murdered Markham Sahib.

"You are right, sahib," said the havildar, "and we will fight by your side. That low-caste hound," pointing to Pir Baksh, "is afraid of us, and wishes to disarm us with soft words, but we know him."

Tynan saw his authority taken from him, the sepoys understanding and looking to Ted as their leader.

"How dare you?" he hotly demanded.

"Oh, go away! You've nothing to do with this business." Ted sneered, not too generously, for Tynan had disgusted him. With the same breath he ordered Pir Baksh to clear away, and the firing recommenced.

The time had come for him to act upon the resolve he had made, a resolve to sacrifice himself and his already-doomed handful, rather than allow the capture of the stores to endanger the safety of his countrymen. The idea of blowing up the magazine had come upon him suddenly as he remembered the news that had arrived yesterday from Delhi,--how Lieutenant Willoughby and his nine heroes had blown up the immense arsenal there and destroyed hundreds of rebels.

The entrance to the magazine was through the room in which they lay. The rebels were quiet, plotting some new move, no doubt, so, leaving the trusty Ambar Singh in charge, Ted proceeded to the spot and began to lay a train of powder to connect the barrels with their post. Before the others had guessed his intention he had brought the train within the room, and the white-faced senior ensign, who had lost by now the last remnant of his pluck, jabbered incoherently and attempted to interfere, until Ted roughly threatened to blow his brains out. Dazed and trembling the wretched boy shifted as far as he could from the black trail. The Rajputs looked on with frightened eyes, half-paralysed by the shock of this new terror; and Dwarika Rai fell on his knees and begged the ensign to have mercy, for such a fate meant more than death to these Hindus.

For a moment the boy's heart failed him; the thought was too awful. To be blown into a hundred pieces, how terrible it seemed! And what right had he to condemn these faithful men to such a death?

Then out spake the havildar.

"If we have to die, let us die like men. Fire the train, sahib!"

"Nay, not yet. Our duty is to stand by our post until the last. No man must leave the room, though."

He lighted a candle and placed it within easy reach, that the flame might be ready on the shortest notice.

"Ha!" whispered Ambar Singh, and there was a reckless note in his voice.

"The jackals are cunning. See!"

Round the bend was pushed forward a large sack full of sand, then another; and soon a third filled up the space. As the last was clumsily poked into its place between the others it tottered and overbalanced, and a couple of pandies leant forward to lift it up. Two muskets spat forth flame and the rebels rolled over in a heap, upsetting another sack. Quick as thought, as the sepoys were engaged in pulling their wounded comrades back, Ted ran with light steps down the passage, keeping close to the farther wall, and seizing a sack with either hand, dragged them away before the amazed mutineers had time to fire.

To make doubly sure of his safety Ambar Singh and his men let fly, and the bullets, sweeping across the bend, covered the lad's return. Amid the cheers of the loyalists the bags were propped in the doorway to serve as a rampart for them, and they began to mock the traitors.

But this triumph could merely put off the evil moment. In another half-hour fresh sand-bags had been brought in, and before long the pandies were in a position to command the doorway. As the news spread that the end was near the mob of sepoys increased, and Ted smiled to himself. He addressed the Rajputs:

"You have done your duty in a manner worthy of your ancestors, and I am going to do mine. Run for your lives!"

"No, Russell, you sha'n't!" cried Tynan, whose nerve had completely broken down. "I surrender,--Pir Baksh, I surrender!" He tried to snatch the light from his comrade's hand. Ted covered him with his pistol, and, pointing across the passage, said simply:

"Run for your life!"

Hot all over, his fingers tingling and his head ringing--partly dread of the horror and partly a glorious exultation--the boy dropped the lighted candle on the thin trail of powder, and darted from the room as a horde of sepoys rushed in.