In vain the great gun exploded its huge shell with its fifty pounds of lyddite over the ridges, in vain the smaller pieces searched every cleft and hollow with their shrapnel.

No answer came from the far-stretching hills.

Not a flash or twinkle betrayed the fierce bands who lurked among the boulders.

The force returned to camp no wiser than when it left.
There was one sight visible every night to all men which might well nerve the rescuers in their enterprise.

Over the northern horizon, behind those hills of danger, there quivered up in the darkness one long, flashing, quivering beam, which swung up and down, and up again like a seraphic sword-blade.