"If they send down fifty, we shall have sharp work. Our difficulty
will be to prevent them from making a rush at all the windows
together. If they were to get there, they could riddle us with balls."
"Could we block them up, Sahib?"
"That is just what I was thinking," Dick replied. "We might try,
anyhow. It will be an hour and a half before they are down here. It
must be past four now, and in another hour daylight will begin to
break.
"There is any amount of the old thatch down on the floor. The best way
would be to fill up the window holes with it first, then to put two or
three bits of wood across, and a strong piece down behind it, and to
keep that in its place by wedging one of the long beams against it. If
they came up and tried to pull the thatch out, we could fire through
it with our pistols; and we will make a loophole below each when we
have got the work done."
It was not so difficult a business as they thought it would be. The
windows were little more than a foot across and two feet high. It was
but the work of a few minutes to fill these up with the masses of
thatch. When this was done, they picked out thick pieces of wood for
crossbars. Then they took a beam, eight feet long, made a hole with
their tulwars in the clay floor close to the wall, put one end of the
beam into it, and reared it upright against the window.
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