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Speculation as to what would have happened if
another course had been adopted is, perhaps, useless ,
but there was a fair consensus of opinion in the post
that if the Tibetans had simply thrown away their useless
firearms, and had contented themselves with rushing
the sentries with drawn swords, the issue of that evening
might have been painfully different. Actually, the
men who reached the post were under the walls by about
three in the morning ; and there in silence they seem
to have remained for nearly an hour. Not a sentry
perceived them ; and if it had not been for an alarm
given by the last joined recruit of the whole force, a
boy who had not been thought to have sufficient steadiness
for the work of a soldier, and was only accepted
because of the unexpected loss of another man, they
could without difficulty have made their way within
striking distance of at least two of the four sentries.
This boy, looking through the darkness, thought he
saw the movement of what might have been a man
about twenty yards from the southern entrance. It
will be remembered that our relations with the Tibetans
were of the most friendly character, and as a matter of
fact the nightly visits paid by the followers of the
Mission to Gyantse, for more or less disreputable purposes,
must have been well within his knowledge \ he
must, in fact, have known that at that moment there
were at least six of the servants of the force in the town ;
and it says a good deal for his coolness and discipline
that, whether he were betraying a friend or not, he did not
hesitate for a moment to rouse the echoes of the night
by a hasty shot following upon a single loud challenge.
The effect of a shot at night upon a defended post is
something which should be experienced to be fully