CHAPTER XVI.
The next four days made a great alteration in the position of the defenders in the fortified house.
The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round the terrace had been knocked away in several places, the gate was in splinters; but as the earth from the tunnel had been all emptied against the sandbags, it had grown to such a thickness that the defense was still good here.
But in the wall, against which one of the new batteries had steadily directed its fire, there was a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing in size, and would ere long be practicable for assault.

Many of the shots passing through this had struck the house itself.

Some of these had penetrated, and the room in the line of fire could no longer be used.
There had been several casualties.

The young civilian Herbert had been killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he was lying.
Captain Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the natives had been killed by the first shot which penetrated the lower room.

Mr.Hunter was prostrate with fever, the result of exposure to the sun, and several others had received wounds more or less severe from fragments of stone; but the fire of the defenders was as steady as at first, and the loss of the natives working the guns was severe, and they no longer ventured to fire from the gardens and shrubberies round the walls.
Fatigue, watching, still more the heat on the terrace, was telling heavily upon the strength of the garrison.