The villagers scuttled away shrieking.
Immediately afterward Bulger and Toley with their eight men sprang from
cover and made a dash for the wall.
"Muskets first!" shouted Desmond.
The muskets were pitched over: then the men scrambled up, Desmond and his
Sepoys assisting them to get across. Almost the first to drop down into
the compound was Bulger, whose hook had proved, not for the first time,
of more service than a sound left arm. Once over himself, he used his
hook to haul the Sepoys after him, with many a vigorous "Yo, heave ho!"
"All aboard, sir," he cried, when the last of the men was within the
wall. "I may be wrong, but I lay my button hook 'tis now all hands to
repel boarders; and only two cutlasses among us--mine and Mr. Toley's.
What ho, mateys! who cares--"
Desmond ordered four of his men to post themselves at the barricaded
gateway: the rest he divided into two parties, and stationed behind the
wall at each side. The wall was six feet high--too high to fire over; but
as it was in a somewhat dilapidated condition there was no difficulty in
knocking away several loose bricks at intervals, so as to make a rough
and ready battlement. Desmond instructed the men to fire alternately
through the embrasures thus made. As soon as one had fired he was to fall
back and reload as fast as possible while another man took his place. By
this device, Desmond hoped to deceive the enemy for a time as to the
number of the defenders in the compound.
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