In spite of these checks, the enemy still came on. Those who had been thrown down returned again to the assault, and were constantly reinforced by others. More parties gained a temporary footing on the wall; there was hand-to-hand fighting at several points at once; and John began to fear that his men would lose heart and give way before sheer weight of numbers. Neither he nor Ferrier could be everywhere, and it was noticeable that the enemy held their ground longest where the defenders had not the presence of the white men to give them confidence. The tide was turned at last by Said Mohammed, who had a brilliant inspiration. There was always a fire burning in the middle of the enclosure. It suddenly occurred to him, when he saw his party beginning to be hard pressed, to boil some water, and observing that John and Ferrier were occupied at two different points far apart, he ran towards the wall between them, where a group of the enemy were on the point of springing down into the enclosure. He carried a can full of boiling water. Aiming it at the biggest man of the group, just as he was bending forward to spring, the Bengali hurled the canful at his head. The scalding water fell not only on him, but on the man next him, and there rose two frightful yells which drowned all other sounds of combat. The injured men and their immediate comrades leapt frantically into the pool; their cries caused a weakening of the attack elsewhere; and the two white men, seizing the moment, though unaware at the time to what it was due, laid about them still more lustily with their rifles.
The savages on the side where Said Mohammed had so opportunely intervened were now seen swimming to the shore. Their panic was speedily communicated to their fellows, and in a few moments at least half of the attacking force were in retreat. The defenders being thus free to devote all their attention to the enemy in the other quarter, soon made short work of them, and after twenty minutes of exhausting effort they saw the whole force making shorewards, and scurrying back under cover. John's riflemen fired a few shots at them as they fled, but he put a stop to this, thinking that the punishment they had already received might have taught them a lesson and would break up the siege.