GUARDING THE GATE 103 



give it, we found that they had brought their 

 charpoys, and ranged them all along the gate ; so 

 that was how they were going to defend us ! How- 

 ever we left them with many injunctions to watch 

 for the first man's head climbing over the gate, and 

 to give it a good prod with the assegai ! We never 

 believed they would, though. Then we went and 

 found the Burra Sahib and the Ancient both fast 

 asleep, in their chairs. We woke them up, and 

 triumphantly acquainted them with the measures 

 we had taken for their safety; after which they 

 humbly went to bed. 



So did not Unda and I. We decided to lie 

 down on a couch in our clothes, in case of a surprise 

 in the night. I am bound to say we did not sleep 

 much. In the still air once we heard shouting, as 

 of a multitude at a distance ; it made us spring up 

 with staring eyes, and clutch at the old naval sword 

 that we had placed all ready on the table, having 

 well sharpened it on the master's razor strop. Two 

 or three times we heard it, and once several shots 

 were fired close by, in the middle of the night. It 

 was most exciting, but nothing else happened, and 

 we never heard the reason of those shots. After- 



