Part 32 (1/2)

Wargrave and Muriel opened on the pursuers with their automatic weapons and checked them. Tas.h.i.+ was about a hundred yards from shelter when a shot struck him. He stumbled and fell, while a howl of delight rose from his foes. As he tried to struggle up bullets kicked up the dust round him and several arrows dropped near.

”Muriel, loose off as many cartridges as you can to cover me,” said Wargrave, laying his pistol beside her.

Before the girl realised his meaning he had sprung out from the rocks and was running towards Tas.h.i.+. For a moment the pursuers were puzzled by his action and then fired their rifles and matchlocks and shot arrows at him. But unscathed he reached the wounded man who had been so faithful a comrade to him. Raising him on his back he staggered towards the rocks, while Muriel pumped lead at the enemy and succeeded in keeping down their fire somewhat. As Wargrave laid the ex-lama on the ground in shelter Tas.h.i.+ seized his hand and touched it with his lips and forehead in silent grat.i.tude. Frank hurriedly examined and bandaged the wound made by a large-calibre bullet, which had pa.s.sed through the leg below the knee, lacerating the muscles but not injuring the bone. Then he took up his post again, while Tas.h.i.+ dragged himself up behind a rock and opened fire on their foes.

These were for the most part Bhutanese, but there were several Chinese among them.

”Look! Look, Frank! There's the _Amban_,” cried Muriel excitedly, pointing to a man who rode into sight along the pa.s.s on a white mule.

She fired at him. The bullet missed him but apparently went unpleasantly close, for Yuan s.h.i.+ Hung galloped back into shelter behind a projecting b.u.t.tress of the cliffs.

The attackers numbered sixty or eighty. They were apparently staggered by the rapid fire poured into them, which killed or wounded several of them. Some tried to find shelter by huddling against the side of the pa.s.s and others flung themselves on the ground behind boulders; but the leaders urged them on.

There could be little doubt as to the issue of the fight. The bullets from the Chinamen's rifles and the Bhutanese matchlocks spattered the rocks or the face of the cliff; but the archers began to shoot almost vertically into the air from their strong bamboo bows, and several iron-tipped, four-feathered arrows dropped behind the cover, one missing Wargrave by a hand's breadth.

Fearing for Muriel he tried to s.h.i.+eld her with his body.

”What's the use, dearest?” she said. ”If you are killed I don't want to live. Indeed, we must both die now. I shall not be taken alive. Kiss me and tell me once more that you love me.”

He held her to his heart in a pa.s.sionate embrace and kissed her fondly.

”They are coming now, sahib,” said Tas.h.i.+. ”And I have only a few cartridges left.”

The lovers paid no heed.

”Goodbye, my dear, dear love,” whispered Muriel, ”I'm happier dying with you than living without you.”

Frank kissed her, solemnly now, for the last time. Then they turned to face the enemy. The swordsmen were ma.s.sing for a charge. Crouching low they held their s.h.i.+elds before them and waved their long-bladed _dahs_ above their heads, uttering fierce yells.

Suddenly the _Amban_ and other mounted men who had been sheltering out of sight dashed into view and rode madly into the rear ranks, knocking down and trampling on anyone in their way. The men on foot looked behind and broke into a run, coming on in a disordered mob. But it was not a charge--it was more like a panic. For with wild cries of frantic terror they fled past the defenders who, fearing a trick, fired their last cartridges into them, dropping several, some of whom tried to rise and drag themselves on in dread of something terrible behind.

Then into sight came a vast herd of wild elephants, filling the gorge from cliff to cliff and moving at a slow trot. A huge bull led them, lines of other tuskers behind him, crowds of females and calves bringing up the rear. The onset of the ma.s.s of great monsters was terrifying. It was appalling, irresistible.

Muriel cried out:

”It's Badshah! Frank, it's Badshah! Look at the leader! Don't you see?”

Tas.h.i.+ stared at the oncoming herd. Then he quietly unfixed his pistol and put it away in the holster.