the french used stones and bricks from the shattered walls and streets of the town to elevate their guns until they were pointing nearly directly over their heads , and in so doing managed to inflict a casualty of their own : a ball tore into the belly of one of the shao lung and erupted through its back , and the poor creature fell stone-dead from the sky , smashing through a burning building and leaving its wreck sprawled across the streets of the town .