eadership of Colonel Dighton Probyn,[17] one of the brilliant band of
cavalry soldiers who had earned undying fame in the great Mutiny. It is
perhaps the memory of those old days of dangers and troubles passed
through together, that keeps alive the kindly feeling which leads Sir
Dighton Probyn to write a few words of brave encouragement when his old
comrades of the Guides take their share of such fighting as still, from
time to time, falls to their lot. On their side the Guides look on him,
along with Lumsden and Jenkins and other old heroes, as one of their own
sahibs.

[17] Later the Right Honourable Sir Dighton Probyn, V.C., G.C.B.,
G.C.S.I., G.C.V.O., P.C., etc. etc., Keeper of the Privy Purse.

The element of secrecy is absolutely essential to a successful surprise.
This is a military truism all the world over, but applies with special
force amongst the Pathan tribes on the North-West Frontier of India, as
indeed it did amongst the Boers, and for probably a very similar reason.
They were not always professional spies whom the Boers employed; nor is
it always a Pathan spy who is on the spot. But both peoples without
having any highly organised system have been exceedingly fortunate in
the manner in which information of impending movements has somehow got
reported in the nick of time in the most interesting quarter.

Due south from Mardan, and distant, as the crow flies, some thirty-five
to forty miles, lies the village of Paia, which for high crimes and
misdemeanours, including murder, rapine, and arson, it was considered
necessary to punish. Now punishment in the days of Cavignari not
unusually meant waking up some fine morning to find that before
breakfast it was either necessary to meet the Guides in a pitched
battle, or to submit quietly to the demands of Government, and expiate
the crimes committed. The difficulty, from our point of view, was to
place the troops in the desired position, at the desired moment, without
previously informing the enemy of the proposal. Failing this, either an
ambush would be prepared into which the troops might fall, thus
reversing the tables; or the whole village, men, women, and children,
flocks and herds, and all the chickens that could be caught on short
notice, would migrate bodily for a few days, till the storm was
overpast. Then they would quietly return and cheerfully resume the
uneven tenor of their ways.

Now Paia was inhabited by Jowaki Afridis, and he that findeth