"The chances are that they will sit and talk all night. Of course, we
might surprise the sentry, but it would be a great risk with those
fellows close at hand, and we should have to run straight for the
steps, and might get a dozen balls after us, before we were over the
wall."
"I don't think there would be much chance of their hitting us,"
Surajah said. "Jumping up from their sleep in confusion, they would be
a minute or so before they could find out what had happened, and we
should be at the foot of the steps before they saw us, and then they
would fire almost at random.
"But, in that case, we should lose our weapons," he added regretfully.
"We cannot help that. The arms are of no consequence at all, compared
to our getting away--unless, of course, any of them happen to overtake
us."
For three or four hours, the soldiers, of whom there were ten in the
hut, sat eating, talking, and smoking round the fire, which they kept
burning on the earthen floor. One by one, however, they left it and
lay down. When but three remained, one of them got up, with a grumble
of discontent, took his musket, which was leaning against the wall,
and went out of the hut.
"What a nuisance!" Dick whispered.
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