“Yes, they must be told at Headquarters,” replied his companion in an equally low tone.  “We can’t hold them two days longer.”

“Not that, if they try to rush us again.  Our ammunition is giving out,” said Parker.  “I’d go myself if I weren’t commanding here.  But I’d have no chance of getting through.  You are our only hope.  Oh, I don’t mean of relief.  There’s no possibility of that.”

“No; if I do manage to get into touch with Headquarters, it would be too late, even if they could spare any troops.”

“Yes, it’s all over now, bar the shouting.  Well, we’ve had some jolly times together, sir, you and I, in this little place, haven’t we?  Do you remember when the Dalehams were up here?  What a nice girl she was.  I hope she’s safe.”

“I hope to Heaven she is,” muttered Dermot.  “Well, Parker, I must say good-bye.  We’ve been good friends, you and I; and I’m sorry it’s the end.”

In the darkness their hands met in a firm grip.

“One word, sir,” whispered the subaltern.  “If you do pull through, you’ve got my mother’s address.  You’ll let her know?  She thinks a lot of me, poor old lady.”

Dermot answered him only by a pressure of the hand.  The next moment he was gone.  Parker, straining eyes and ears, saw nothing, heard nothing.

Half an hour later a picquet of slant-eyed men lying on the steep slopes of the hill below the Fort saw above them a man’s figure dark against the paling stars.  They challenged and sprang towards it with levelled bayonets.  The next instant they were hurled apart, dashed to the ground, trampled to death.  One as he expired had a shadowy vision of some awful bulk towering black against the coming dawn.

The sun was low in the heavens when Dermot awoke in a bracken-carpeted glade of the forest thirty miles away from Ranga Duar.  Over him Badshah stood watchfully.  The man yawned, rubbed his eyes and sat up.  He looked at his watch.

“Good Heavens!  I’ve slept for hours!” he cried.

Overcome by fatigue, for he had not even lain down once since the siege began, and finding that he was in danger of falling off the elephant, he had dismounted for a few minutes’ rest.  But exhausted Nature had conquered him, and he had fallen into a deep sleep.  Haggard, hollow-eyed, and worn out, despite the rest, he staggered to his feet and was swung up to Badshah’s neck by the crooked trunk and started again.

He was hastening towards Salchini, where he hoped to secure Payne’s car, if the owner had not fled, and try to get into touch with Army Headquarters.  But what to do if his friend had gone he hardly knew.  The heavy firing at Ranga Duar, echoed by the mountains, must have been heard in the district; and all the planters had probably taken the warning and gone away.  He was racked with anxiety as to Noreen’s fate and could only hope that at the first alarm her brother had hurried her off.  But there was no military station nearer than Calcutta or Darjeeling, and by this time it was probable that the whole of Eastern Bengal was in revolt.  God help the Englishwoman that fell into its people’s hands!  The temptation to turn aside to Malpura was great.  But Dermot overcame it.  His duty came first.