CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN. 514 was afterwards ascertained that they belonged to both the Zakka and the Aka Khel clans. After the first mile and a half the enemy began to close in,and seemed to bepreparing for attack. Travers formed his rearguard across the valley in a strong position, and kept it there for the next three hours until one o'clock, in order to give thecolumnandits baggagetime toget well on its way to Maidan. At onehe began to retire, and,pursued all tlae way by the hot fire of the Afridis,he reached at three the crest of the ridge between the Waran Valley and Maidan. The Goorkhas, who were furthest to the rear, had three men killed (including Lieutenant Wylie) and five men wounded. Tlae 15th Sikhs had been left by General Kempster to hold the pass over theridge. The rearguardand the Goorkhas passed through their line of pickets, and the Sikhs then checked the pursuit. The next stage of the fight was on ground very near, and later actually the same as that over which the retreat from Saran Sar had passed on the 9th. The Saran Sar heights rose close by to the northward of the pass held by the Sikhs, and from the Saran Sar pine woods crowds of Afridis hastened to join in the attack on Kempster's rearguard.

directly in their line of retreat. Led by their colonel, the 36th and the Dorsets stormedthe houses with the bayonet. A company was pushed up to help the 15th on the ridge, and protected their retreat to the captured ruins. Des Voeux, coming up at the same time with the rest of the 36th and half a company of the Dorsets, drove the enemy back from another groupofruined houses,divided by a nullah from Haughton'sposition.

The colonel decided that to retreat through the darkness would be exceedingly dangerous, and resolved that the troops should pass the night entrenched on the ground they held. Unfortunately, a detachmentof theDorsets who had been sent back to reinforce him, but had not actually joined him, made the attempt to reach the camp. Like the Northamptons on November 9th they became involved in the darkness in the network of gullies between Saran Sar and Maidan. Tracked down and fired upon from the rocksby the tribesmen, they brokeinto smallgroups in the darkness andlost heavily. They arrived in camp in twos and threes,many ofthem after hand-to-handbayonet fights with the hillmen. One gallant fellow, Private Vickery, who had already distinguished himself in trying to savethe life of a comradeat Dargai,although wounded in the foot byabullet, met three swordsmen hand to hand. He shot the first, bayoneted the second, and as his bayonet remainedin the man'sbody,heclubbed his rifle and brained the third. While he thus fought, a woundedcomradelay beside him. He succeeded in struggling on to the. camp,carrying the wounded man with him. He was rewarded with the VictoriaCross.

The 15th Sikhs were now outnumbered and hardpressedby enemies who,for the most part, werefiring from cover,but who,more thanonce, attempted a charge in the open. The commander of the regiment, Colonel Abbott, had been badly wounded, and many of the rank and file had beenhit. It was then that very opportunely Colonel Haughton, of the 36th Sikhs, arrived withhalf his battalion and a company of the Dorsets, sent back by General Kempster from themain column. The 36th was the regiment that had so gallantly held the Samana forts at the beginning of the outbreak,and the other half battalionof the regiment was following a little further back, under the command of Major Des Voeux, the defender ofFort Gulistan.

All the companies were very much under strength, most of them numbering now onlythirty or forty bayonets, so the force that Haughton and Des Voeux were bringing to the rescue was not more than 500 in all, but the men were of the sort that do not mind facing odds.

During thenight the enemykept up a desultory fire on the ruined houses. Haughton and Des Voeux managed to communicate with each other by whistle signals, and joined forces just before sunrise. The night had been a very trying time. "Wherever it waspossible," wrote one of the officers," wemade rude stone breastworks, but materials were sadly wanting, and manyof the men were wholly unprotected on the eastern side, whence the enemy stillkept up a desultory fire. Fortunately the darkness prevented their aim being good. About 11 p.m. they left us altogether, and we settled down to endure a long and bitter night as best we could. The cold was intense, and the men had no great-coats with them, and nothing to eat, for wehad expected to reach camp that evening. The only way we could get any reliei was by Darkness was coming on, and as Haughton went up to the ridgehe wassuddenly firedon at close quarters from some ruined houses. The enemy had worked round a flank of the 15th Sikhs and got into these ruins, which were