GALLANT DEEDS. 467 the tribesmen could not force their way through this small body of determined men. It washere that the great majority of the casualties occurred. Sundar Singh was killed, sacrificing himself in order to give more time for the retirementto be effected. He was a young officer,havingentered the service in 1883. Jemadar Sherzad surely earned the Victoria Cross,if such a decoration were given to the native army. He first of all carried Lieutenant Higginson away; then, possessing himself of a rifle,he covered by his fire a party of three men carrying Surgeon-Captain Cassidyto a placeof comparativesafety; and finally he shared in the desperaterearguard fight. Subadar Nawab Khan, ist Sikhs, was among the last to leave the ground. He was twice shot in the leg,but his wounds did not interfere with his cool discharge of duty on the way to Dattakhel." As for the rank and file, it would be easy to give a long list of native soldiers who emulated the splendid example set them by their officers.

badly wounded. But the native officers behaved splendidly. Treacherously surprised, outnumbered, fired on from all sides, they kept their men together, andretired fighting doggedlystep by step, and carrying off with them the two guns, and all the wounded, and the bodies of the dead officers. Bunny and Browne, though dying, were able to give some orders. The retirement began when the small supply of ammunition had been exhausted. While the mules werebeingloaded up the guns fired a few blank charges to give the enemy the idea that they werestill in action. The menof the gun detachment showed magnificent courage. "In limbering up— i.e. with a mountainbattery,loading guns, carriages, wheels, and ammunition boxes on the mules— a wheel-mule was shot, but Havildar Amardinran back and picked up both wheels— seventy-two pounds each— and started to rejoin the battery. He was shot dead and the wheels were not recovered. Cruikshank's orderly picked up a gun weighing 200 pounds, single-handed,and carried it to the gun mule. The mule was shot dead, so he carried it to the spare mule. Then he went back andbrought in Lieutenant Cruikshank's body."

The retreat was not effected without heavy loss bothof men and material. Thenative troops mt of a total force of a little over 300) twenty-two killed and thirty wounded. These, with the six white officers, made a total list of fifty-eight casualties. Theguns were saved,but so many of the mules were shot or stampeded that most of the hospital and veterinary stores, a heho-signal apparatus, and about 4,000 rifle cartridges, fell into the enemy's hands.

On the infantry fell the main pressure of the stubbornrearguardfight fromridge toridge along the road to Sheranni. How thenative officers did their duty was well told by a correspondent of the Pioneer:— "Subadar* Narayan Singh, 1st Sikhs,must comefirst on the list, not merely for personalgallantry,butfor themilitary ( displayed. No soonerhad theattack begun than he recognised the immense importance ofsaving the reserveammunition(ten boxes,each containing 600 rounds),as he knew the sepoys hadonly twenty-two rounds in their pouches. He told off seven men to fetch the boxes,and they succeeded in carrying six back to the firing line. Narayan Singh, as senior native officer, had the burden ofcarrying out the details of the retirement, under orders issued by Lieutenants Higginson and Seton-Browne, who were both suffering severely from their wounds. He did his work admirably. Subadar Sundar Singh, ist Punjaub Infantry, must be bracketed with Narayan Singh. He with his brother Subadar and Jemadars Sherzad, ist Sikhs, formed up a party of sepoys to cover the retirement, and not a man budged until the order was given that they might fall back. The enemy closed with them, hand-to-hand fighting taking place, but After Sheranni was passed matters began to look serious. The tribesmen hung on the rear of the littlecolumn, and were workinground its Hank te> head it off. Encumbered with wounded men, the march was very slow. But now help was at hand. Early in the fight Mr. Gee had sent a trusty native messenger off with a hurriedly-written message to Dattakhel, and on receiving it some of the Sikh cavalry turned out, escorting Lieutenant De Brett, R.A.,with a couple of mountain guns. To the eastward of nni they came in sight of the retiring column, hard pressed by the exultant tribesmen. De Brett got his guns into position andopened fire on the pursuers. By an unfortunate mischance the rammer and sponge of e>ne of the guns had been lost, but De Brett kept it in action, using a carbine as a rammer, loading the gun himself, and allowingno one else to standin front of it or helphim; so that if for want of the sponge the charge had exploded prematurely in the gun, he would have been the only victim ot the accident. The covering tire of the guns * Subadar=:Native Captain. t Jemadar=Native Lieutenant.