For two minutes or more it held, then it began to give.
"Swift! swift!" cried Otter again as he dragged at the cannon to turn it, "or all will yet be lost." "Hurry no man's ox, Black One," said Soa, as she laid the gun with the help of Peter.
A cry went up from the slavers; the gate was tottering, but it still held by the upper hinges.

A few more blows and it must surely fall.

But those blows were never struck.

Again Soa sprang backwards, and the roar of the gun was answered by the screams of the slavers as the shrapnel ploughed through them.
Of those who were left the most part fled for shelter to the auction-hut and to the Nest itself.

Some ran across to the magazine, but appeared to be unable to enter it, for soon they were seen flying back again, while about a dozen of the boldest remained at the gate trying to complete its destruction.