Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti, G. A. Henty [free e novels .txt] 📗

upper one was built of wicker work, thickly plastered with mud, and quite useless as a protection against rifle bullets. He set to work to cut a dozen small loopholes, a few inches above the floor. From these he commanded a view all round. Then he called up the two wounded men, who were still able to use their rifles, and ordered them to lie down, one at each of the side walls; while he himself took his place over the doorway, with the rifle of the disabled man.

From here he picked off several of the enemy. His fire was returned but, as he took care to lie well back, the bullets all went over his head.

When darkness fell, he went down and directed the sepoys to man only the loopholes in the front wall. This released three men, whom he brought upstairs and posted above the door.

The Afridis continued to riddle the upper wall and the door with bullets. Several times they attempted a rush, but were unable to withstand the heavy magazine fire which met them, when within twenty yards of the house. Twice they attempted to pile faggots at the side of the door, but the defence was so strong that many of the bearers were killed, and the survivors fled.

Knowing that the Afridis were in the habit of hiding their store of grain, Lisle prodded the floor in all directions with his bayonet and, at last, found a good supply in one corner of the room. Unfortunately, however, there was only one vessel, half full of water. It would not have done to light a fire to cook the grain, as any illumination within the house would have shown the exact place of the loopholes to the enemy. Lisle therefore served out some grain to each of the soldiers, to eat raw. He gave some of the water to the three wounded men, and served out a mouthful to each of the others; telling them that they might not be relieved for some time, and that the little supply must be made to last as long as possible.

The enemy still kept up a heavy fire but, after the lessons they had received, there was but small chance that they would attempt another hand-to-hand attack. Lisle therefore told all the men to lie down and sleep, while he himself took up his place at the loophole nearest the door, and kept watch.

No attempt was made until daybreak was approaching; when, with wild yells, the Afridis again rushed forward. The men were instantly on their feet, and eight rifles flashed out.

"Magazine firing!" Lisle shouted, "but don't fire unless you see a man, and make sure of bringing him down. We must husband our ammunition."

Quietly and steadily, the men kept up their fire. This time the enemy reached the door, and Lisle was compelled to call down the two men from above. The Afridis gathered thickly round the door, tried to push it in with their heavy knives, and battered it with the butt ends of their rifles. Gradually, in spite of the fire of the defenders, they splintered it; but the barricade behind still held and, from this, the besieged poured through the broken door so galling a fire--one half emptying their magazines, and then falling back 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, the garrison brought down all available material from the upper floor to strengthen the barricade.

"I don't think they will try again, lads," Lisle said.

The numbers of the besieged were, unfortunately, dwindling. One had been shot through the head, two others had been wounded, and Lisle himself had received a bullet in his shoulder. There were now but two unwounded men; but the other four were all capable of using their rifles, at a pinch. It was a relief, indeed, when day fairly broke; for then they could see their foes at a distance and, by a steady fire, force them to take to shelter. When they got into cover, the tribesmen continued to fire upon the block house; but the besieged did not reply, for they had only twenty rounds per man left.

Another mouthful of water was now served to all and, the two unwounded men having been placed in the upper story to keep watch, the others sat down under the loopholes, in readiness to leap to their feet and fire, if an alarm was given.

At length, about eleven o'clock, the fire of the enemy suddenly ceased and, a few minutes later, a relief party marched up. The men cheered lustily as the barricade was removed, and Lisle and the six men 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 hope that you had survived; for we found poor Macintyre and his party, all killed and cut up. We started this morning, as soon as your absence was discovered, and have been searching ever since; but I doubt if we should ever have found you, had we not heard firing going 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 forty bodies lying near the door; and we know that the enemy always carry off their dead, when they can. You must have accounted for a good many more, who have been taken away in the darkness."

"We have done our best, you may be sure," Lisle said. "We have lost two men killed, and four out of the others are wounded. I myself have got a rifle ball in my shoulder; at least, it is not there now, for it went right through. Fortunately it missed the bone, so I 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 the number, when they first attacked."

"You must have been exposed to a tremendous fire. The walls are everywhere pitted with bullet marks, and the upper story seems perfectly riddled with balls; but of course none of you were up there."

"Yes, we used it as a lookout. As you see, I made four loopholes in each side and, as we lay well back, their bullets passed over our heads.

"What we want now is water. We drank the last drop, when we saw you coming. We had scarcely a mouthful each, and we have not had much more 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 the relief 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 way down to the camp, and at one time the resistance was formidable; but they were presently joined by another party from the camp, and the Afridis therefore drew off.

Lisle received many hearty congratulations on his return, and many officers 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, to defend yourself so long, with only seven men, against a couple of hundred of the enemy; and the loss you inflicted upon them has been very severe, for forty fell close to the house, so that their bodies could not be carried off. I certainly should reckon that you must have killed or wounded a good many more."

"I don't think so, Colonel. No doubt we killed some more but, as it was dark for the greater part of the time, we could only fire at the flashes of their rifles. Certainly I saw twelve or fourteen fall, before it became quite dark and, as they several times tried to rush us, others might have fallen far enough from the house to be carried off by their friends."

That day General Lockhart placed, in the order of the day, the names of Lisle and his little party as having shown conspicuous gallantry, in defending themselves against a vastly superior force.

Two days later General Lockhart, himself, went out with a strong force to the top of Saransur; but met with little resistance, and the force returned at a much earlier hour than on the previous occasion, and reached camp before nightfall.

In warfare of this kind, it is the wounded who are the cause of disaster. A wounded man means six men out of the fighting line--four to carry him, and one to take charge of their rifles. A few casualties greatly reduce the fighting strength of the party. In European warfare this would not take place, as the wounded would be left behind, and would be cared for by the enemy.

The next day representatives of all the Orakzai tribes came in, and asked for terms. They were told that they must restore all stolen property, give up five hundred rifles, and pay a fine of thirty thousand rupees, and the cost of rebuilding the post they had destroyed. Representatives of three other tribes also came in, and similar terms were imposed upon them. Two of these, the Kambar-Khels and the Malikdins, were in the habit of migrating to British territory in cold weather; but the Kuki-Khels sent their families and goods, in winter quarters, to the Bara valley. The other 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 two officers and four men were wounded. The following night the camp was fired into, by an enemy who had crept within a hundred and fifty yards of it. News came that General Kempster, with his detached brigade, had met with little opposition; and his search over the hills showed that the Zakka-Khels, in that direction, were severely punished.

On the 13th, the 3rd Brigade left the camp to cross the Kotal towards Saransur. Except for a few long-range shots, there was no opposition. Next day a Mullah's house was destroyed, documents found there showing that he had taken a vigorous part in the rising.

Two days later the brigade started on their return march. The 1st and 3rd Ghoorkhas were to cover the retirement, and the 15th Sikhs to hold the Kotal. The baggage train reached the Kotal by twelve o'clock, and the camp at three. The Ghoorkhas, however, had to fight hard; and were so done up that, instead of continuing to cover 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 fell back, leaving the ground strewn with their dead. The action, however, now became general, all along the hill. Ammunition was running short, and Captain Abbott felt that, in the face of so large a force, and with fifteen or sixteen wounded, he could not retire down the ravine or valley without support. He therefore signalled for assistance; and the 46th, and two companies of the Dorsets, were detached for that purpose.

Colonel Houghton of the 36th, who was now in command, retiring steadily, found himself hampered with wounded in the rough country; while the enemy were surrounding him in increasing numbers. He was suffering heavily from the fire of the enemy posted in a small village; and he determined to seize it, and hold it for the night. Three companies of the 15th and two of the 36th therefore rushed up the hill, and were into the buildings before the Pathans were aware that they were moving against them. Those that delayed were bayoneted, the rest fled precipitately into the darkness. Their fire, however, had cost us an officer and five men killed.

Major Des Voeux on the right, having rushed a clump of buildings opposite to him, made for a second one on the far side of the nullah, in which was a small square building. The roof of the house had been burnt, and the charred beams were lying on the ground. The men rolled these, and what litter they could find into the gaps of the building; but the breastwork was barely two feet high. When the enemy returned to the attack they rushed right up to the house but, luckily, they fired high in their excitement, and the Sikhs swept them back again. The breastwork was then completed, a sentry was placed at each side of the house, and the rest lay down.

Colonel Houghton's post, which was a strong one, was not much troubled. A