As he was sitting on the platform over his cell, he heard a distant boom, and knew that Holkar was besieging Delhi.
The next day, to his satisfaction, the sound of cannonading was again distinct.
"At any rate," he said to himself, "Holkar has not carried the place by a sudden rush.

There is a regularity about the fire that shows that it is deliberate.

No doubt they are breaching one of the walls." Going to the other side of the platform, he saw that a good many of the rajah's followers were standing on the wall, listening to the firing.

The wall itself was some thirty-five feet below the spot where he was standing; neither loophole of his cell commanded a view of it, so that a prisoner could hold no conversation with the guard below.
Presently another man came up on to the walls, and approached the group there.

He was, like the others, dressed in a small white turban, a short jacket made of unbleached hemp; underneath which was a loose tunic, bound at the waist with a sash, and coming down to the knees.