d feeling of satisfaction that I conduct
the reader back to the entrenched camp of Inayat Kila at the entrance
of the Mamund Valley, where so much happened, and with which so many
memories and experiences are associated. Now that the troops are gone,
the scene of life and activity has become solitary and silent. The
graves of the officers and men who fell there are lost in the level of
the plain. Yet the name is still remembered in not a few English homes,
nor will the tribesmen, looking at the deserted entrenchment, easily
forget the visit of the 2nd Brigade.

When, on the afternoon of the 15th, the camp had first been pitched,
only a small and hasty shelter-trench surrounded it. But as the weeks
passed, the parapets grew higher, the ditches deeper, and the pits more
numerous, until the whole place became a redoubt. Traverses were built
along the perimeter to protect the defenders from flanking fire. Great
walls of earth and stone sheltered the horses and mules. Fifty yards
out, round the whole camp, a wire trip was carefully laid, to break
a rush, and the paths and tracks leading to the entrances had become
beaten, level roads. The aspect of permanency was comforting.

Since the action of the 16th September, the 2nd Brigade had been unable
to move. Transport--the life and soul of an army--is an even more
vital factor here than in less undeveloped countries. The mobility of
a brigade depends entirely on its pack animals. On the 14th many mules
were killed. On the 16th the field hospitals were filled with wounded.
It now became impossible for the camp to move, because the wounded
could not be carried. It was impossible to leave them behind, because,
deducting an adequate guard, the rest of the brigade would have been too
few for fighting. The 2nd Brigade was therefore a fixture. Its striking
power was limited to out and home marches. The first step taken by Sir
Bindon Blood was to restore its mobility by getting the wounded sent
down to the base. Some changes in the constitution of the force were
also made. The 11th Bengal Lancers, who now joined the Mohmand Field
Force, were succeeded by the Guides Cavalry. The 35th Sikhs, who had
suffered such severe losses, were replaced by the 31st Punjaub Infantry
from Panjkora. The Buffs, who were full of fever, were exchanged for the
Royal West Kent from the Malakand. No.7 British Mountain Battery took
the place of No.8, which was now reduced to four guns, having lost
in the wee