ficulty in forcing their way through
them.

Between two and three o'clock the column arrived at the lower edge of
the flats (Sapparia) previously mentioned, where it was fortunate
enough to find a little water. By this time the men, who had been over
thirty hours under arms, were so worn out that Colonels Newdigate and
Turton reported their respective regiments, the Rifle Brigade and the
4th Gurkhas, unfit to go farther, and Macpherson, like Tytler, had to
accept the responsibility of modifying the part assigned to him in the
common programme, and to some extent for the same reason, viz., the
danger to which his hospital and commissariat transport would be
exposed if, by pushing on to the summit of the Rhotas Heights, he were
to put it out of his power to protect them during the dark hours which
were close at hand.

On the flats, then, the main body of the turning party bivouacked on
the evening of November 21st, whilst the flanking regiment, after many
hours of stiff climbing, during the course of which it had been
threatened by a large number of Mohmands, established itself at dusk on
the top of Turhai, a ridge parallel to and immediately under the Rhotas
Heights.

No sooner had the Guides and the 1st Sikhs, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Jenkins, taken up a position on the hill opposite the village of Kata
Kushtia, which completely commanded the Khyber Pass, here some 600
yards broad, than a party of the enemy's cavalry, about fifty in
number, was perceived at 4:30 p.m., leisurely making their way up the
pass. To make the garrison of Ali Masjid realise that their retreat was
cut off, Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins ordered his men to open fire upon
these Afghan horsemen at a range of about 500 yards. Several were
dismounted and the rest galloped away, some back to Ali Masjid and some
up the Khyber Pass. As it began to grow dusk a larger body of the
enemy's cavalry, accompanied by a small party of infantry, came from
the direction of Ali Masjid riding hard for their lives as they passed
the place where the troops were posted, from which it was evident that
the retreat from Ali Masjid had commenced. This body of Afghans came
under fire of 200 or 300 rifles within 300 to 500 yards' range and
suffered some loss. As darkness closed in the Guides and the 1st Sikhs
lay down on the rocks about one hundred feet above the level of the
stream, and no large body of the enemy passed during the night,
although, doubtless, men moving sing