em pipes of tobacco
and stood them treat at the canteen. But the Fore and Aft, not knowing
much of the nature of the Gurkhas, treated them as they would treat
any other 'niggers,' and the little men in green trotted back to their
firm friends the Highlanders, and with many grins confided to them:
'That dam white regiment no dam use. Sulky--ugh! Dirty--ugh! Hya, any
tot for Johnny?' Whereat the Highlanders smote the Gurkhas as to the
head, and told them not to vilify a British Regiment, and the Gurkhas
grinned cavernously, for the Highlanders were their elder brothers and
entitled to the privileges of kinship. The common soldier who touches
a Gurkha is more than likely to have his head sliced open.

Three days later the Brigadier arranged a battle according to the
rules of war and the peculiarity of the Afghan temperament. The enemy
were massing in inconvenient strength among the hills, and the moving
of many green standards warned him that the tribes were 'up' in aid of
the Afghan regular troops. A squadron and a half of Bengal Lancers
represented the available Cavalry, and two screw-guns borrowed from a
column thirty miles away the Artillery at the General's disposal.

'If they stand, as I've a very strong notion that they will, I fancy
we shall see an infantry fight that will be worth watching,' said the
Brigadier. 'We'll do it in style. Each regiment shall be played into
action by its Band, and we'll hold the Cavalry in reserve.'

'For _all_ the reserve?' somebody asked.

'For all the reserve; because we're going to crumple them up,' said
the Brigadier, who was an extraordinary Brigadier, and did not believe
in the value of a reserve when dealing with Asiatics. Indeed, when
you come to think of it, had the British Army consistently waited for
reserves in all its little affairs, the boundaries of Our Empire would
have stopped at Brighton beach.

That battle was to be a glorious battle.

The three regiments debouching from three separate gorges, after duly
crowning the heights above, were to converge from the centre, left,
and right upon what we will call the Afghan army, then stationed
towards the lower extremity of a flat-bottomed valley. Thus it will be
seen that three sides of the valley practically belonged to the
English, while the fourth was strictly Afghan property. In the event
of defeat the Afghans had the rocky hills to fly to, where the fire
from the guerilla tribes in aid would cover their retreat. I