by G. A. Henty
Chapter 9: Captured.
When he had completed the dressing of the wounds, Lisle mounted tothe upper story, which was a feature of every house in the valley.While the lower part was of stone; the upper one was built ofwicker work, thickly plastered with mud, and quite useless as aprotection against rifle bullets. He set to work to cut a dozensmall loopholes, a few inches above the floor. From these hecommanded a view all round. Then he called up the two wounded men,who were still able to use their rifles, and ordered them to liedown, one at each of the side walls; while he himself took hisplace over the doorway, with the rifle of the disabled man.
From here he picked off several of the enemy. His fire was returnedbut, as he took care to lie well back, the bullets all went overhis head.
When darkness fell, he went down and directed the sepoys to manonly the loopholes in the front wall. This released three men, whomhe brought upstairs and posted above the door.
The Afridis continued to riddle the upper wall and the door withbullets. Several times they attempted a rush, but were unable towithstand the heavy magazine fire which met them, when withintwenty yards of the house. Twice they attempted to pile faggots atthe side of the door, but the defence was so strong that many ofthe bearers were killed, and the survivors fled.
Knowing that the Afridis were in the habit of hiding their store ofgrain, Lisle prodded the floor in all directions with his bayonetand, at last, found a good supply in one corner of the room.Unfortunately, however, there was only one vessel, half full ofwater. It would not have done to light a fire to cook the grain, asany illumination within the house would have shown the exact placeof the loopholes to the enemy. Lisle therefore served out somegrain to each of the soldiers, to eat raw. He gave some of thewater to the three wounded men, and served out a mouthful to eachof the others; telling them that they might not be relieved forsome time, and that the little supply must be made to last as longas possible.
The enemy still kept up a heavy fire but, after the lessons theyhad received, there was but small chance that they would attemptanother hand-to-hand attack. Lisle therefore told all the men tolie down and sleep, while he himself took up his place at theloophole nearest the door, and kept watch.
No attempt was made until daybreak was approaching; when, with wildyells, the Afridis again rushed forward. The men were instantly ontheir feet, and eight rifles flashed out.
"Magazine firing!" Lisle shouted, "but don't fire unless you see aman, and make sure of bringing him down. We must husband ourammunition."
Quietly and steadily, the men kept up their fire. This time theenemy reached the door, and Lisle was compelled to call down thetwo men from above. The Afridis gathered thickly round the door,tried to push it in with their heavy knives, and battered it withthe butt ends of their rifles. Gradually, in spite of the fire ofthe defenders, they splintered it; but the barricade behind stillheld and, from this, the besieged poured through the broken door sogalling a fire--one half emptying their magazines, and then fallingback to reload while the others took their places--till at last,after suffering a loss of some thirty men, the enemy retired again,and were soon hidden in the darkness. As soon as they had gone, thegarrison brought down all available material from the upper floorto strengthen the barricade.
"I don't think they will try again, lads," Lisle said.
The numbers of the besieged were, unfortunately, dwindling. One hadbeen shot through the head, two others had been wounded, and Lislehimself had received a bullet in his shoulder. There were now buttwo unwounded men; but the other four were all capable of usingtheir rifles, at a pinch. It was a relief, indeed, when day fairlybroke; for then they could see their foes at a distance and, by asteady fire, force them to take to shelter. When they got intocover, the tribesmen continued to fire upon the block house; butthe besieged did not reply, for they had only twenty rounds per manleft.
Another mouthful of water was now served to all and, the twounwounded men having been placed in the upper story to keep watch,the others sat down under the loopholes, in readiness to leap totheir feet and fire, if an alarm was given.
At length, about eleven o'clock, the fire of the enemy suddenlyceased and, a few minutes later, a relief party marched up. The mencheered lustily as the barricade was removed, and Lisle and the sixmen came out. The officers ran forward and warmly greeted Lisle,shaking hands with him and the men of his little party.
"Thank God we have found you alive, Bullen! We hadn't even a hopethat you had survived; for we found poor Macintyre and his party,all killed and cut up. We started this morning, as soon as yourabsence was discovered, and have been searching ever since; but Idoubt if we should ever have found you, had we not heard firinggoing on up here. I don't think men were ever so pleased as ours,when we heard it; for it showed that you, or some of your party,were still holding out.
"You must have had desperate fighting, for there are some fortybodies lying near the door; and we know that the enemy always carryoff their dead, when they can. You must have accounted for a goodmany more, who have been taken away in the darkness."
"We have done our best, you may be sure," Lisle said. "We have losttwo men killed, and four out of the others are wounded. I myselfhave got a rifle ball in my shoulder; at least, it is not therenow, for it went right through. Fortunately it missed the bone, soI shall be all right again, in a day or two."
"How many were you attacked by?"
"I should say there must have been two hundred. That was about thenumber, when they first attacked."
"You must have been exposed to a tremendous fire. The walls areeverywhere pitted with bullet marks, and the upper story seemsperfectly riddled with balls; but of course none of you were upthere."
"Yes, we used it as a lookout. As you see, I made four loopholes ineach side and, as we lay well back, their bullets passed over ourheads.
"What we want now is water. We drank the last drop, when we saw youcoming. We had scarcely a mouthful each, and we have not had muchmore during the siege."
Flasks were instantly produced, and each man drank his fill.
"And now we had better be off," the officer in command of therelief party said. "Likely enough the Afridis will be down upon us,as soon as we move."
They were, indeed, several times fired at, as they made their waydown to the camp, and at one time the resistance was formidable;but they were presently joined by another party from the camp, andthe Afridis therefore drew off.
Lisle received many hearty congratulations on his return, and manyofficers of other regiments came in to shake his hand.
"I shall send in your name again, Mr. Bullen," his colonel said,after Lisle had made his report. "It was a most gallant action, todefend yourself so long, with only seven men, against a couple ofhundred of the enemy; and the loss you inflicted upon them has beenvery severe, for forty fell close to the house, so that theirbodies could not be carried off. I certainly should reckon that youmust have killed or wounded a good many more."
"I don't think so, Colonel. No doubt we killed some more but, as itwas dark for the greater part of the time, we could only fire atthe flashes of their rifles. Certainly I saw twelve or fourteenfall, before it became quite dark and, as they several times triedto rush us, others might have fallen far enough from the house tobe carried off by their friends."
That day General Lockhart placed, in the order of the day, thenames of Lisle and his little party as having shown conspicuousgallantry, in defending themselves against a vastly superior force.
Two days later General Lockhart, himself, went out with a strongforce to the top of Saransur; but met with little resistance, andthe force returned at a much earlier hour than on the previousoccasion, and reached camp before nightfall.
In warfare of this kind, it is the wounded who are the cause ofdisaster. A wounded man means six men out of the fightingline--four to carry him, and one to take charge of their rifles. Afew casualties greatly reduce the fighting strength of the party.In European warfare this would not take place,
as the wounded wouldbe left behind, and would be cared for by the enemy.
The next day representatives of all the Orakzai tribes came in, andasked for terms. They were told that they must restore all stolenproperty, give up five hundred rifles, and pay a fine of thirtythousand rupees, and the cost of rebuilding the post they haddestroyed. Representatives of three other tribes also came in, andsimilar terms were imposed upon them. Two of these, theKambar-Khels and the Malikdins, were in the habit of migrating toBritish territory in cold weather; but the Kuki-Khels sent theirfamilies and goods, in winter quarters, to the Bara valley. Theother Maidan tribes would probably have come in at the same time,but for their fear of the Zakka-Khels.
There was trouble the next day in the Mastura valley, where twoofficers and four men were wounded. The following night the campwas fired into, by an enemy who had crept within a hundred andfifty yards of it. News came that General Kempster, with hisdetached brigade, had met with little opposition; and his searchover the hills showed that the Zakka-Khels, in that direction, wereseverely punished.
On the 13th, the 3rd Brigade left the camp to cross the Kotaltowards Saransur. Except for a few long-range shots, there was noopposition. Next day a Mullah's house was destroyed, documentsfound there showing that he had taken a vigorous part in therising.
Two days later the brigade started on their return march. The 1stand 3rd Ghoorkhas were to cover the retirement, and the 15th Sikhsto hold the Kotal. The baggage train reached the Kotal by twelveo'clock, and the camp at three. The Ghoorkhas, however, had tofight hard; and were so done up that, instead of continuing tocover the retirement they passed on, leaving the Sikhs to cover.
The enemy, thinking that only a small rear guard had been left,came down in great force; but the fire was so heavy that they fellback, leaving the ground strewn with their dead. The action,however, now became general, all along the hill. Ammunition wasrunning short, and Captain Abbott felt that, in the face of solarge a force, and with fifteen or sixteen wounded, he could notretire down the ravine or valley without support. He thereforesignalled for assistance; and the 46th, and two companies of theDorsets, were detached for that purpose.
Colonel Houghton of the 36th, who was now in command, retiringsteadily, found himself hampered with wounded in the rough country;while the enemy were surrounding him in increasing numbers. He wassuffering heavily from the fire of the enemy posted in a smallvillage; and he determined to seize it, and hold it for the night.Three companies of the 15th and two of the 36th therefore rushed upthe hill, and were into the buildings before the Pathans were awarethat they were moving against them. Those that delayed werebayoneted, the rest fled precipitately into the darkness. Theirfire, however, had cost us an officer and five men killed.
Major Des Voeux on the right, having rushed a clump of buildingsopposite to him, made for a second one on the far side of thenullah, in which was a small square building. The roof of the househad been burnt, and the charred beams were lying on the ground. Themen rolled these, and what litter they could find into the gaps ofthe building; but the breastwork was barely two feet high. When theenemy returned to the attack they rushed right up to the house but,luckily, they fired high in their excitement, and the Sikhs sweptthem back again. The breastwork was then completed, a sentry wasplaced at each side of the house, and the rest lay down.
Colonel Houghton's post, which was a strong one, was not muchtroubled. A disaster, however, occurred to a half company, undertwo officers, who tried to push their way back to camp. Theirbodies were found in a nullah, in the morning.
The next morning the parties were relieved by a force from camp.
On the same day General Westmacott, with the 4th Brigade, marchedout. For the past three days the Malikdins and Kambar-Khels hadshown a disposition to be friendly, and had made some attempt toopen a grain traffic. Major Sullivan, with three other officers,pushed forward to prospect a site for a camp. Some apparentlyfriendly and unarmed tribesmen approached them; but MajorSullivan's suspicions were excited when he saw that, instead ofcoming down direct, they were making a sweep that would cut off hislittle party. He therefore whistled for the others to join him.
When the tribesmen saw that the game was up, they poured in twovolleys. Luckily the shots went high, and the four officers gainedthe cover of a house, and were soon joined by a Ghoorkha company.There was no doubt that the enemy had played the game of friendliesfor the purpose of obtaining four officers, alive, to use ashostages.
The force then retired, bringing in the baggage animals, loadedwith forage. The return was now decided upon. It was considered bythe authorities that it would be less expensive to organize anotherexpedition in the spring, when the sowing had begun; than tomaintain a large force in the Tirah during the winter. The Afridiswould not come down, and orders were therefore issued fordestroying all the villages. These were burned, and the axe laid tothe roots of the beautiful groves.
The tribal representatives of the Kambar-Khels, Alla-Khels,Malikdin-Khels, and Kuki-Khels came in. They were ordered to sendin eight hundred serviceable rifles, fifty thousand rupees in cash,and all property that had been stolen.
When the force arrived at Bagh there was a sharp action, and thecasualties amounted to twenty-two wounded and seven killed. TheGhoorkhas reported that they had found the enemy in great force, inthe valley.
On the 22nd of November, Sir William Lockhart made a reconnaissanceto Dwatoi and the Bara valley. He took with him a strong brigade,under General Westmacott. Every precaution was taken in enteringthis unknown country, as the road led down a defile commanded byhigh peaks. The Yorkshire Regiment was told off to hold the rightof the advance, the 1st and 2nd Ghoorkhas were to do the same workon the left. The column was headed by the 3rd Ghoorkhas; followedby the 28th Bombay Volunteers, two companies of the Sappers andMiners, the Borderers, and the baggage; the rear guard beingfurnished by the 36th Sikhs.
Within a mile of camp, the Ghoorkhas were engaged with strayriflemen. A mile farther they were met by the main body, and wereunable to proceed farther without support. The flanking regiments,however, presently came up, and the advance continued. The road layin the river bed, and the men were plodding, waist deep, in water.The passage became narrower and narrower, and so rapid was thedecline that the river bed became impassable, and the men madetheir way along by its side. The road was almost dark, so high werethe cliffs and so narrow the passage between them.
Here the resistance became very formidable. The Ghoorkhas were allengaged in clearing the ridges, and the Bombay Pioneers pushedforward an advance guard, the Borderers moving up to their support.The deepest gorge was enfiladed by a party of tribesmen, withMartinis. One man fell with a broken leg. The man helping him wasshot a moment later and, when a stretcher was brought back, twomore of the Borderers were hit. A section of the 3rd Sikhs wasdetached to turn the enemy out, and then the ravine was rushed byall the rest. There was another gorge to be passed, and the enemywere pressing on both sides; but a battery was now brought intoaction, and soon drove them off.
Thus Dwatoi was reached, where the force encamped. It was but asmall open plain, some five hundred yards across. Three miles awaya gorge opened into the Rajgul valley, and it appeared that, beyondthis, lay Wira valley.
All the summits were strongly picketed. Night fell, and there wasno sign of the baggage. The troops were wet to the waist, therewere seventeen degrees of frost, and the men had neither blanketsnor food.
When morning broke there were still no signs of baggage, but ateleven it began to appear. At noon fighting began again, and therest of the train did not arrive till about five o'clock. Fightinghad been incessant the whole day. It was so severe that Sir WilliamLockhart determined to return to Bagh, the following day.
The arrangements were admirable. The baggage was loaded up beforedaybreak. The Ghoorkhas were to ascend the hills flanking thevillage, three companies of the Borderers were to form the advanceguard, the wounded on stretchers were to follow, and the mountainbattery was to take up a posit
ion to cover the retirement. By eighto'clock the last of the baggage was near the nullah. The helio thenflashed to the pickets. They came in and joined the rear guard ofthe Sikhs, and were well in the nullah before a shot was fired.
When the Afridis fairly took the offensive they attacked with fury,and the Sikhs were obliged to signal for help. They were joined bya company of the Borderers. A party of Pathans dashed forward toseize the baggage; they had not, however, seen the few files thatformed the rearmost guard, and were therefore caught between twobodies of troops, and almost annihilated. This sudden reversal ofthe situation seemed to paralyse the tribesmen, and the rest of thegorge was safely passed. Though the natives followed up the rearguard to within two miles of the camp, they never made anotherdetermined attack. The force lost, in all, five officers wounded,and a hundred men killed and wounded, from the 36th.
During the course of the reconnaissance Lisle had been with therear guard, and had fallen in the torrent with a rifle ball throughhis leg. As every man was engaged in fighting, the fall wasunnoticed and, as he could not recover his footing, he was washedhelplessly down to the mouth of the defile. As he managed to reachthe shore, a party of Afridis rushed down upon him with drawntulwars; but a man who was evidently their leader stopped them, asthey were about to fall upon him.
Illustration: A party of Afridis rushed down upon him.
"He is an officer," he said. "We must keep him for a hostage. Itwill be better, so, than killing him."
Accordingly he was carried back to a village which the troops hadleft that evening. Here some women were told to attend to hiswound, and the party who captured him went off to join in theattack on the British rear guard.
In the evening, the man who had saved his life returned. He was, itseemed, the headman of the village; and had been with his force inthe Bara valley, where the natives of the village had retired onthe approach of the British force. There Lisle lay for ten days, bywhich time the inflammation from the wound had begun to subside.The bullet had luckily grazed, and not broken the bone. At the endof that time, some of the principal men came to him and, by signs,directed him to write a letter to the British commander, sayingthat he was a prisoner, that he was held as a hostage against anyfurther attempt to penetrate into the valley; and that, in theevent of another British force approaching, he would be at once putto death.
Four of the Afridis always sat at the entrance to the house, whichwas one of the largest in the valley. He was served regularly withfood; of which, as the valley had not been entered, there was, ofcourse, abundance. The women in the house seldom came in to seehim, except when they brought him his meals; and then it wasevident, from their surly manner, that they strongly objected tohis presence.
As he lay on his rough pallet, he resolved to maintain theappearance of being unable to walk, as long as possible. He knewvery well that, if General Lockhart had to make another movementagainst the Bara valley, he could not be averted from his purposeby the fact that the Afridis held one officer prisoner, though hewould assuredly revenge his murder, by destroying every house inthe valley; and that he must accordingly trust only to himself tomake his escape. To do this, it would be absolutely necessary toprocure a disguise; and this, at present, he did not see his way toaccomplish.
The guards below were relieved every few hours, and kept up theirwatch every day. Still, as they watched only the door, it might bepossible for him to let himself down from the window at the back ofthe house.
On the tenth day he found himself really able to walk, without verygreat difficulty. Looking out of the window, one morning, he sawthat the women of the house were all gathered round the guards, andtalking excitedly. Evidently some messenger had come in with newsfrom the Tirah valley. He knew, by this time, how many there werein the house, and was satisfied that they were all there.
He at once made his way down to the floor below; feeling confidentthat, for the moment, he would not be disturbed. Hanging againstthe wall were several men's dresses and clothes. He hastily tookdown sufficient for a disguise. They were summer clothes--for theAfridis, when leaving to act against our troops in the mountains,wear sheepskin garments. At any rate, there was little fear thattheir loss would be discovered until the men returned from thefront.
He took the clothes up to his room, and hid them under the pallet.Then, having ascertained that the women were still engaged intalking, he took off his boots and made his way down to the loweststory, which was principally used as a storehouse. Here, among bagsof corn and other stores, he saw a coil of rope. This he carriedupstairs and, having hidden it, lay down again.
The rest of the day passed quietly. It was apparent that theclothes had not been missed and, with a strong feeling ofhopefulness, he awaited the night. When the house was quiet helooked out. Four men were sitting, as usual, at the front of thedoor. Then he took off his uniform and put on his disguise,fastened one end of the rope securely, and slid down noiselessly tothe ground.
Keeping the house between him and the guard, he started. Making adetour, he got free of the village, and then turned to the upperend of the valley. Half an hour's walking took him to where theforce had encamped, and he soon reached the mouth of the gorge.
Here he plunged into the river. His leg hurt him a good deal, buthe waded on and, after great exertions, reached the head of thegorge. His leg was now hurting him so much that he could proceed nofarther so, turning off, he mounted the hills and lay down amongthe rocks, where there was little chance of his being discovered.
Here he dozed till morning. When he took the rope, he had thrustseveral handfuls of grain into his pocket; and this he had tied upin the skirt of his garment, when he started. He now munched someof it, and lay, watching the mouth of the gorge below.
Two hours after daybreak, he saw a small party of tribesmen comehurrying up through the gorge. They did not stop, but kept on theircourse, evidently supposing that he had pushed on to join theBritish camp. All day he lay hidden and, before dark, he saw themen come back again. They had evidently given up the chase and, ashe had seen no searchers upon the hills, the idea that he washiding had evidently not occurred to them.
He felt, however, that he must give his leg another day's restbefore proceeding. On the following day he suffered a good dealfrom thirst, and dared not venture down to the river. When it wasdark, however, he continued his way.
Illustration: It was the dead body of an Afridi.
Presently he saw something white, huddled up behind a rock and,climbing up, he found that it was the dead body of an Afridi, whohad fallen in the fight. Beside him lay his Lee-Metford rifle. Thiswas indeed a find. In the scanty garments that he had alone daredto take, he would be known at once by anyone who happened to passnear him. He now set to work, and dressed himself in the deadwarrior's garments; and took up his rifle and pouch of ammunition.
"Now," he said, "I only want something to stain my face and hands,and I shall be able to pass anywhere, if it does not come totalking."
He kept his eyes about him, and presently saw the plant which heknew Robah had used in preparing the dye for him. Pulling all theleaves off, he pounded them with the stock of his rifle, and rubbedhis face with juice from the leaves. There was sufficient to stainboth his face and hands.
By nightfall he entered the Maidan. Here he saw many nativesgathered round the ruined houses. As he approached it, he saw thatheavy firing was going on round the camp. It was greatly reduced inextent, and he guessed that a considerable proportion of the forcehad moved off on some punitive expedition. Between him and it, hecould see many of the Afridis crouched among the rocks, ready toattack any small parties that might issue out.
He saw at once that it would be impossible to reach the campwithout being questioned, and he therefore determined to fall inwith the column that had gone out. For this purpose, he made a widedetour until he came upon a track where there were innumerablesigns that a column had recently passed. Crushed shrubs would, inthemselves, have been a sufficient guide; but there were many otherto
kens of the path of the army: grain dropped from a hole in asack, scratches on the rock by the shod feet of the transportanimals, an empty cartridge case, and a broken earthenware pot.
He pushed on rapidly, keeping a sharp lookout for the enemy. Someof them, passing along the hill, shouted to him to join them; butwith a wave of his rifle and a gesture, showing that he intended tokeep to the track, he went on.
Late in the afternoon, on mounting a high pass, he could distinctlyhear firing in the distance; and his heart beat at the thought thathe was near his friends. Still, between him and them the Afridismight be swarming. The risk, however, must be run.
Ascending the slope of the hill, he obtained a view of theconflict. A body of British troops was firing steadily, and anotherregiment was coming up to their assistance. The Afridis wereswarming round in great numbers, and keeping up a continuous fire.Waiting until he saw where the Afridis were thickest, he made hisway down to the firing line, and took up his position behind arock; there being none of the natives within fifty yards of him. Henow began to fire, taking pains to see that his bullets went farover the heads of the British. This he continued until nightfall,by which time the conflict had come to an end, and the Britishregiments, with the convoy which they were protecting, had reachedcamp.