There was little or no risk in descending the rock.  Soon after sunset it was wrapped in deepest gloom, for night succeeds day in the tropics with wondrous speed.  The hazard lay in twice crossing the white sand, were any of the Dyaks hiding behind the house or among the trees.

He held no foolhardy view of his own powers.  The one-sided nature of the conflict thus far was due solely to his possession of Lee-Metfords as opposed to muzzle-loaders.  Let him be surrounded on the level at close quarters by a dozen determined men and he must surely succumb.

Were it not for the presence of Iris he would have given no second thought to the peril.  It was just one of those undertakings which a soldier jumps at.  “Here goes for the V.C. or Kingdom Come!” is the pithy philosophy of Thomas Atkins under such circumstances.

Now, there was no V.C., but there was Iris.

To act without consulting her was impossible, so they discussed the project.  Naturally she scouted it.

“The Mahommedan may be able to help us,” she pointed out.  “In any event let us wait until the moon wanes.  That is the darkest hour.  We do not know what may happen meanwhile.”

The words had hardly left her mouth when an irregular volley was fired at them from the right flank of the enemy’s position.  Every bullet struck yards above their heads, the common failing of musketry at night being to take too high an aim.  But the impact of the missiles on a rock so highly impregnated with minerals caused sparks to fly, and Jenks saw that the Dyaks would obtain by this means a most dangerous index of their faulty practice.  Telling Iris to at once occupy her safe corner, he rapidly adjusted a rifle on the wooden rests already prepared in anticipation of an attack from that quarter, and fired three shots at the opposing crest, whence came the majority of gun-flashes.

One, at least, of the three found a human billet.  There was a shout of surprise and pain, and the next volley spurted from the ground level.  This could do no damage owing to the angle, but he endeavored to disconcert the marksmen by keeping up a steady fire in their direction.  He did not dream of attaining other than a moral effect, as there is a lot of room to miss when aiming in the dark.  Soon he imagined that the burst of flame from his rifle helped the Dyaks, because several bullets whizzed close to his head, and about this time firing recommenced from the crest.

Notwithstanding all his skill and manipulation of the wooden supports, he failed to dislodge the occupants.  Every minute one or more ounces of lead pitched right into the ledge, damaging the stores and tearing the tarpaulin, whilst those which struck the wall of rock were dangerous to Iris by reason of the molten spray.

He could guess what had happened.  By lying flat on the sloping plateau, or squeezing close to the projecting shoulder of the cliff, the Dyaks were so little exposed that idle chance alone would enable him to hit one of them.  But they must be shifted, or this night bombardment would prove the most serious development yet encountered.