They seemed to be coming to some decision.

Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the man who had been bound to the tree, and he staggered towards them and joined in the talk, pointing to his wounds.

Then the two fellows who had been engaged in flogging him, accompanied by eight companions of the same type--they appeared to be soldiers, for they carried guns--swaggered towards the group who were being addressed by Jeekie, of whom Alan counted twenty-three.

As they approached Jeekie made some suggestion which, after one hesitating moment, the others seemed to accept, for they nodded their heads and separated out a little.
Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which they replied with a derisive shout.

Then without a word of warning he lifted Aylward's express rifle which he carried, and fired first one barrel and then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead.