k's fighting half its officers, a third of its mules, and a
quarter of its men.

Camels to carry the wounded were sent up from Panjkora. The Buffs
escorted the long convoy down the line of communications. Every one in
camp was sorry to see the last of them. In the fighting of the week they
had made it clear that the British Infantry battalion is the backbone
of every mixed brigade, and they shared with the Guides Infantry one of
those enviable reputations for steadiness which are so hard to gain and
so easy to lose on active service.

On the 24th of September Sir Bindon Blood received despatches appointing
him to the command of the First Division of the Tirah Expeditionary
Force, and as the negotiations with the Mamund Jirgahs were then in
progress, and it seemed that a settlement might be reached, he proceeded
with his staff to Panjkora. Here he was on the telegraph wire, and could
communicate easily and quickly with India, and at the same time
watch the progress of events at Inayat Kila. Mr. Davis conducted the
diplomatic relations with the Mamunds. On the 26th a Jirgah from
the tribe came into camp. They deposited 4000 rupees as a token of
submission, and brought in fifty firearms. These, however, were of the
oldest and most antiquated types, and were obviously not the weapons
with which so many soldiers had been killed and wounded. This was
pointed out to the tribal representatives. They protested that they had
no others. They were poor men, they said, and their property was at the
mercy of the Government. But they had no other arms.

The political officer was firm, and his terms were explicit. Either they
must give up the twenty-two rifles captured from the 35th Sikhs, on
the 16th, or their villages would be destroyed. No other terms would he
accept. To this they replied, that they had not got the rifles. They
had all been taken, they said, and I think with truth, by the Afghan
tribesmen from the Kunar Valley. These would not give them up.
Besides--this also with truth--they had been taken in "fair war."

One man, who had lived some years in Calcutta, was especially eloquent
on the subject, and argued the case with much skill. He was however,
crushed by Mr. Davies asking whether there were "no greybeards in the
tribe," and why they were "led by a babu" [a native clerk--the Oriental
embodiment of Red Tape]. The discussion was extended to the whole
question of their quarrel with the British power. They admitted ha