523 CHAPTER XVIII, IN THE BAZAR VALLEY AND THE KHYBER ALTHOUGH Sir William Lockhart's force had marched through the hitherto unknown valleysof Tirah, destroying the towers of every village stronghold and burning or carrying off the stores of grain and forage found in the houses, the northern section of the Afridis, chiefly represented by the powerful Zakka Khel clan, refused to admit they were beaten and to make submission. It may even be that they considered themselves the victors in the last stage of the campaign— that terrible march down the Bara River Valley, during which the invaders had been day after dayin retreatunder thefire of their rifles.

to Ali Musjid. No military precautions were neglected, but all day not an Afridi was seen, not a shot was fired. The 9th Goorkhas occupied thedesertedfort, and the column camped to the east of it on the lower slopes of the hills and the level ground near the river. " Considerable damage had been done to Fort Ali Musjid," wrote the Pioneer correspondent," but the outer walls were not so seriously damaged as appearedat first sight, the breaches made in the front wall, as seen from below, being those made in the original wall (which had neverbeen rebuilt)by our guns in 1878. Inside, however, everything was dismantled, all the woodwork burned, all the roofs fallen in, and nothing left standing but blackenedcrumbling walls. In one roomthe concrete floor had been picked up to uncover an old well-shaped excavation, which had, previous to our occupation of the Khyber, been used as a magazine. It had been covered in by us because a child had accidentally fallen in andbeen killed;but the wily Afridi, evidently thinking it was likely to contain something of value, had gone for it at once, only to find it empty. Besides the fort, there are circular blockhouses on the commanding points near at hand;these are entered from the outside by a ladder, which leads to a platform raised some four feet from the ground, and the walls are loopholed at a convenient height above the platform. These blockhouses had also been dismantled and the doors and platforms burned, so that the pickets sent up to occupy them found the loopholes out ofall reach andhad to bivouac outside."

The greater part of the Zakka Khel were believed to have taken refuge in their usual winter quarters, the Bara Valley. The Afridis round the Khyber had withdrawn to the higher hill fastnesses near the Pass, where they could find shelter in the numerous caves. Sir William Lockhart decidedthat hisnext operations should be the reoccupation of the deserted Khyber forts and a march into the Bazar Valley The former task was assigned to General Hammond and the Peshawur column;the latter to General Symons and the First Division of the Tirah Expeditionary Force, made up of Hart's and Gaselee's brigades. The troops were ordered to concentrate at Fort Jamrud. Hammond and Symons were to move together as far as Ali Musjid, where it was thought that the enemy might assemble and make astand.

The concentration of the troops at Fort Jamrud was completed on December 17th. Next day General Hammond went out to Fort Maude with a strong escort to reconnoitre the Bass. Fort Maude was deserted, everything movable had been looted, and the floors and woodwork burned. From this point Ali Musjid was clearly in sight. It appeared to be also abandoned by the Afridis after being seriously damaged. Not a soul was in sight in the Pass. The poles of the telegraph were standing along the mountainroad,but the wires had been taken away andprobably cut andhammered into slugs.

The advance did not begin till the 23rd, when the Peshawur column marched from Jamrud Next day (Christmas Eve) General Symons's twobrigades moved out from Fort Maude and encamped near the deserted village of Lala Cheena,about half-way up to Fort Ali Musjid. While they marched up, a detachment from the Peshawur column heldthe heights commanding their line of march ; and, before they arrived, General Hammond's Engineers had visited Lala Cheena and blown up its loopholed towers. This day, again, no enemy was seen. The night of Christmas Eve was passed, in bitterly cold weather, in the mouth of the Khyber Pass;