506 CHAPTER XV.

THE TAKING OF THE ARHANGA PASS AND THE OCCUPATION OF TIRAH.

THERE was only one day of rest in the Mastura Valley, and then, on October 31st, the advance was resumed. Five miles from the camp to the northward rose the hill slopes of the Arhanga Pass, the gateway of the Tirah plateau, the stronghold of the Afriditribes, as yet untroddenby aninvader.

central attack. Three brigades andsix batteries made up an overwhelming force against the handful of Afridis who held the crest of the Pass.

The action was soon decided. The Scottish Borderers, acting as the advanced guard, seized the hillin front of the Pass, and the batteries opened fire. At the same time the flank attacks pushed forward. The Afridis gave way the moment they saw the Goorkha scouts and the YorkshireRegiment racing together to the top of the crest on their right. They gave way so soon that they cannot have suffered much loss. As for the victors, four men and an officer wounded made up the whole list of casualties. Thegate ofTirahhadbeen forcedalmost without a fight.

During the twenty-four hours' halt there was, however,no rest for the Pioneers,the transport, or the staff. The Engineers were busy improving the road over the Sampagha. The transport was crowding the hill track, toiling day and night to get baggage and supplies over the Pass, and General Lockhart and his staff, escorted by Kempster's brigade, was reconnoitringtheArhangaandplanningthe attack. Though native reports had described the Arhanga as a formidable position, its capture did not seem a very difficult piece of work. The slopes ascending to it were ofeasy gradient,and were not cut by ravines, like those below the Sampagha. There was an opening for a flank attack, and right in front of the Pass, and only three quarters of a mile from it, an isolated roundtoppedhillafforded a splendidposition for the artillery. Mr. Donald,one of the political officers who knew thedistrict, and had intimate relations with the tribesmen, predicted that there would hardly be any fighting, for if his information was correct, only a handful of the Afridis,some 500 in all,would be foundin the Pass. The event amply justified these forecasts. The tribesmenhad abandonedthe ideaofoffering aregular opposition to Lockhart's advance. But their spirit was not broken, and they had determined, while avoidingpitched battles, to harass the invaders of their hills with a formidable guerilla warfare.

BelowthePassopenedout theMaidanofTirah, a fertile, well-cultivated valley. That evening the invaders camped about three miles from the Pass, near a small hamlet in the middleof the well-tilled level ground. " There areno villages here,strictly so-called," wrote Colonel Hutchinson, the Times correspondent, from the Maidan Camp,"but there areinnumerable houses,dotted allover the country. They occur every quarter of a mileor so, and are large,strong,substantial buildings,generally including a tower or keep, andcapableofastrongdefence,'solongasartillery is.not brought against them. Guns would of course knock them to pieces at once. Ineach of thesehouses lives afamily, or agroup ofblood relations;in one, for example, several brothers, with their wives and children,and fathers and mothers, etc.;in another a petty chief, withhis immediate following, his sisters, cousins, and aunts, and so on. But,needless to say, they are all empty now. With one accord the people have fled before our approach, and wehave the valley to ourselves. But not the surrounding hills. They are full of houseless and prowling marauders, andno party can leave camp in any direction without a skirmish or an exchangeof shots with them."

On the morning of October 31st the Arhanga Pass was stormed. The main attack was directed by General Yeatman-Biggs, who sent his fourth brigade(Westmacott) straight up the Pass, while the third (Kempster)threatened the enemy'sleft. At the same timeGeneral Synaons,with Gaselee's brigade, was to turn the enemy's right. The remaining brigade (Hart's) was kept in reserve in the valley. The artillery marched with the The Afridis began by attacking the transport coming into camp as night fell,for so heavy was the transport train that the long lines of laden