by stalking the enemy on their left flank, while he left about 1000
men to attack them once more in front. Setting out at nightfall of
December 1, he led the remainder northwards through a side valley, and
then up a gully on the side of the Spingawi. The ascent through pine
woods and rocks, in the teeth of an icy wind, was most trying; and the
movement came near to failure owing to the treachery of two Pathan
soldiers in the ranks, who fired off their rifles in the hope of warning
the Afghans above them. The reports, it afterwards transpired, were
heard by a sentry, who reported the matter to the commander of the
Afghan detachment; he, for his part, did nothing. Much alarm was felt in
the British column when the shots rang out in the darkness; a native
officer hard by came up at once, and, by smelling the rifles of all his
men, found out the offenders; but as they were Mohammedans, he said
nothing, in the hope of screening his co-religionists. Later on, these
facts transpired at a court-martial, whereupon the elder of the two
offenders, who was also the first to fire, was condemned to death, and
the younger to a long term of imprisonment. The defaulting officer
likewise received due punishment[312].

[Footnote 312: Lord Roberts, _Forty-One Years in India_, vol. ii. p. 130
_et seq_.; Major J.A.S. Colquhoun, _With the Kurram Field Force,
1878-79_, pp. 101-102.]

After this alarming incident, the 72nd Highlanders were sent forward to
take the place of the native regiment previously leading; and once more
the little column struggled on through the darkness up the rocky path.
Their staunchness met its reward. At dawn the Highlanders and 5th
Gurkhas charged the Afghan detachment in its entrenchments and
breastworks of trees, and were soon masters of the Spingawi position. A
long and anxious time of waiting now ensued, caused by the failure of
the first frontal attack on the Kotal; but Roberts' pressure on the
flank of the main Afghan position and another frontal attack sent the
enemy flying in utter rout, leaving behind guns and waggons. The Kurram
column had driven eight Afghan regiments and numbers of hillmen from a
seemingly impregnable position, and now held the second of the outer
passes leading towards Cabul (December 2, 1878). The Afghans offered but
slight resistance at the Shutargardan Pass further on, and from that
point the invaders looked down on valleys that conducted them easily to
the Ameer's capital[313].