ngements were admirable. The baggage was loaded up before
daybreak. The Ghoorkhas were to ascend the hills flanking the
village, three companies of the Borderers were to form the advance
guard, the wounded on stretchers were to follow, and the mountain
battery was to take up a position to cover the retirement. By eight
o'clock the last of the baggage was near the nullah. The helio then
flashed to the pickets. They came in and joined the rear guard of
the Sikhs, and were well in the nullah before a shot was fired.

When the Afridis fairly took the offensive they attacked with fury,
and the Sikhs were obliged to signal for help. They were joined by
a company of the Borderers. A party of Pathans dashed forward to
seize the baggage; they had not, however, seen the few files that
formed the rearmost guard, and were therefore caught between two
bodies of troops, and almost annihilated. This sudden reversal of
the situation seemed to paralyse the tribesmen, and the rest of the
gorge was safely passed. Though the natives followed up the rear
guard to within two miles of the camp, they never made another
determined attack. The force lost, in all, five officers wounded,
and a hundred men killed and wounded, from the 36th.

During the course of the reconnaissance Lisle had been with the
rear guard, and had fallen in the torrent with a rifle ball through
his leg. As every man was engaged in fighting, the fall was
unnoticed and, as he could not recover his footing, he was washed
helplessly down to the mouth of the defile. As he managed to reach
the shore, a party of Afridis rushed down upon him with drawn
tulwars; but a man who was evidently their leader stopped them, as
they were about to fall upon him.

Illustration: A party of Afridis rushed down upon him.

"He is an officer," he said. "We must keep him for a hostage. It
will be better, so, than killing him."

Accordingly he was carried back to a village which the troops had
left that evening. Here some women were told to attend to his
wound, and the party who captured him went off to join in the
attack on the British rear guard.

In the evening, the man who had saved his life returned. He was, it
seemed, the headman of the village; and had been with his force in
the Bara valley, where the natives of the village had retired on
the approach of the British force. There Lisle lay for ten days, by
which time the inflammation from the wound had begun to subside.
The bullet had