Their eyes reached now into the forest, but as far as they ranged it was empty, there was no encampment, not a single warrior passed through the undergrowth.

It seemed that the grumblers were right when they said the besieging army was gone.
Lucy Upton was walking toward the palisade where she saw Paul Cotter, when she heard a distant report and Paul's fur cap, pierced by a bullet, flew from his head to the earth.

Paul himself stood in amaze, as if he did not know what had happened, and he did not move until Lucy shouted to him to drop to the ground.

Then he crawled quickly away from the exposed spot, although two or three more bullets struck about him.
The station thrilled once more with excitement, but the new danger was of a kind that they did not know how to meet.

It was evident that the firing came from a high point, one commanding a view inside the walls, and from marksmen located in such a manner the palisade offered no shelter.