nk now that me shells killed many of the
beggars? sure and their corpses ought to be just thick." He was pained
to hear that in all probability we should not catch up the enemy again
that day, I really think nothing less than twelve hours' hard fighting
every day, with short intervals for refreshments, would satisfy him.

One of the guns, when being brought up the cliff, had slipped off the
coolies and fallen down to the bottom again, breaking off the foresight,
but Stewart mended it during the halt.

At the same time, the Sappers were hard at work pulling down a house for
materials to build a bridge, but before it was actually begun, we heard
that the river could be forded again lower down, so the bridge was not
built. By this time the men were sufficiently rested, the whole column
had closed up, and orders sent back for the baggage to come on.

Off we started, the Punyal Levies working down the right bank, the
Hunzas on the left, the main column following the left bank of the
stream. By 4 P.M. we reached the ford and crossed to the right bank, the
water not being much above our knees. And almost immediately after, we
saw some men drawn up on the spur we were approaching; they turned out
to be the Mastuj garrison, who, on finding the besieging force halting,
had come out to find out the reason. If they had only heard our guns and
turned out at once, they would have cut the line of retreat of our
opponents, and the whole crew must have been wiped out. Unfortunately
the fort of Mastuj is built far down the reverse slope of a fan, and
although some of the sentries reported they heard firing, it was thought
they must be mistaken.

By 5 P.M. we had got on to the spur, and found Moberly, with part of the
garrison, all looking very fat and fit; evidently the siege had not
worried them much so far. A detachment of the 14th Sikhs (the remains of
Ross's company) were left on the spur to cover the baggage coming in,
while our column trotted down to the fort, getting there by 5.30 P.M.
Here we found Jones with his arm in a sling. Our force bivouacked in a
garden attached to the fort, the trees of which had been lopped to
deprive the enemy of shelter, and the farther wall destroyed. This we
precious soon built up again, and within an hour our force was
comfortably entrenched and cooking its dinner.

What a blessing it was to be down again in a decent climate! Fires were
still pleasant at night, but in the daytime the bright, co