528 CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN.

and both officers got him under coyer ; while Colonel Plowden and Lieutenant Owen carried Bell's corpse across the dangerousbit,and were both wounded in doing so. The whole party then took refuge in the bed of the watercourse or nullah, but they- soon realised by their increasing losses that it gave them very imcharger with him in the nullah. He mounted oneof the buglers on the horse and bade the young fellowgallop back toLundi Kotal with a note asking General Hammond for reinforcements. The plucky messenger got through without being hit. -Just before sunset the general received the message, and at oncecame FORT ALI MUSJID.

perfect cover against the Afridi fire, which now came from the higher ground. ColonelPlowden was here joined by twenty- men of the Inniskillings and a weak company of the oth Goorkhas, who had also been out picketing the Pass, and were howretiring. With these troops and his own men he occupied a number of ruined houses andkept the enemy at bay. But to retire through the broken ground, carrying the dead and wounded, would have been to risk serious loss,unless there was larger force available to cover the retreat. The colonel had his out with a strong detachment and brought the Oxfords and their comrades in. They had lost seventeen men inall, of whom three werekilled on the spot and ten subsequently died ot their wounds.

On the same day the pickets round Ah Musjid were fired upon. The Afridis seem to have been on the war-path in almostevery part of the Khyber during the day. On th Sir HenryHavelock-Allan had,with Sir William Lockhart's permission, left the camp at Lala Cheena to ride up the Pass to Lundi Kotat