"There's a fearful drove of the rascals coming.

You'd better get that stone out and away in double-quick time!" The major replied nothing, but his pick-axe flailed into the cement with desperate energy.

Emilio and others seconded him, while Rennes and Wallace dug, kneeling, with their crowbars.

The blows echoed with staccato rapidity through the sacred Haram, which now had begun to fill with the confused roar of the on-coming mobs from the Ma'abidah suburb and the Plain of Mina, from Jebel Hindi and the Sulaymainyah quarter.
"You have about five minutes more," the Master spoke again.

"If necessary, we will open on them with machine-guns, from the ship, but I'd like to avoid bloodshed if possible.