CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN. 466 guns were placed near a garden wall in an adjoining field. The men were warnedby their officers to keep their arms near them and not to pile them, and sentries andguards were posted; but treachery was not really expected, for even the wildestof the Pathan tribes usually consider that it is wrong to attack a man after offering him food.

Mr. Gee, escortedbv the cavalry,went off to a neighbouringvillage,and after awhile returned and said the question of the fine had been settled in a friendly way. The lunch provided by Sadda Khan was then taken, and the chiefs leg at the second or third shot, and Colonel Bunny was mortally wounded almost immediatelyafter."

The fire camefrom allsides. The main force of theenemy were in front, where they lined a nullah (the hollow of a watercourse) and the wallsof thevillage. They also helda high wall on the right, and somerising ground with a few huts on the left. Some shots also came froman isolated tower away to the rear. From this tower came a shot which, early in the action, severely wounded Surgeon-Captain Cassidy, the only medicalofficer with the column.

THE VILLAGE OF SHERANNI.

alsobroughtin food for theMohammedan sepoys of the escort. To quote the narrative of one of the few surviving officers of the column:— "There was not the slightest suspicion of unfriendliness on the part of the tribesmen. After lunch, about 2 p.m.,Colonel Bunny orderedthe pipers to play for the villagers, and they played one tune. Just as they began another a man was seen waving a drawn sword on one of the villagetowers, and the villagers suddenlycleared offtowardsthe village. A single shot was fired, apparently as a signal, and a fusillade at once commenced, directed at the British officers, who were together under a tree, and at the Sikhs. This wastaken up on allsides, the sepoysin the meantimefalling in at once and taking up positions. Lieutenant Seton-Browne was hit in the As soon as the firing began the Sikhs and Punjaubis replied, and the artillery officers, Captain Browne and Lieutenant Cruikshank,ran to their guns andbrought them into action, sending case shotinto a crowdof fanatics who tried tocapture them by a rush from the village. As the fifth round was fired from the guns Captain Browne fell mortally wounded, and Cruikshank took command. Another minute and theLieutenant fell badly hit beside the guns. But he raised himself on one knee and continued to direct their fire till he was struck dead by a second bullet. Lieutenant Higginson, of the Sikhs, waS hit soonafter the firing began, so that in a few minutes the only white man left untouched was Mr. Gee, the political officer. Of the white combatant officers, three were killed and three