The combined fire of the infantry and guns had now subdued the enemy's fire on their left, and it slackened elsewhere, and they could be seen on their right dribbling away from their sangars. Some mounted men appeared from behind on their extreme right, and attempted to drive the fugitives back into their defences, and gave us a chance at them at 1100 yards with the one gun we had left. We got a few shots at them, one pitching nicely among them, evidently with good effect, and they also disappeared.

I went and lay down close to Colonel Kelly, and with his permission took two pioneers and my orderly and went forward to the gol to look for a way down into it. The enemy sniped us at about 500 yards, and leaving the orderly lying on the edge to watch, the three of us scrambled down 50 feet or so to a sloping ledge. Leaving the sepoys behind a rock to return the fire, I made my way along to where the ledge ended, and it was clear there was no way down, the drop being 200 feet. Returning, I found one sepoy had been grazed on the neck.

Meanwhile the pioneers had got down a little to our right with the aid of Oldham's ladders, and soon found a goat track up the far side. Oldham and Beynon and a few men got across, and the enemy seeing this began to retire in earnest. The levies now got round their left, and this settled it. We

ing out.

The guns crossed the gol by the old track near the river, after it had been repaired. We advanced to the end of the fan on the Chitral side, and halted opposite a village over the river called Sanoghar, while the transport was sent for from Mastuj. Some of the enemy could be seen clearing out to the mountains through the village, and we got in a few last shots at them.

The medical officer wanted to send Bulwan Singh back with the other wounded. But though he was hit through the fleshy part of the thigh, and was so faint from loss of blood that he could scarcely stand, this gallant soldier came up to me at once, and begged me to get the doctor to let him go on with us. The latter did so eventually, on being assured that Bulwan Singh, who would not be able to ride, should have as many men as he wanted to help him along. How he managed to cover the difficult marches of the next few days, I do not know; but five days later, when we thought we were in for another fight, and I looked round to see who was in charge of his gun, he at once shouted back, "It's all right, Sahib, I am here."

The gunners had suffered out of proportion to their numbers in this action, and I have often thought whether the guns could have been better handled; but, owing to the conformation of the ground, I do not see how. We were the only arm

adapted to destroy sangars for the infantry; if we could not do it, we were an encumbrance. In other words, were we going to be "mother"? But I grieved for my men; their baptism had been severe.

That was the last time we came into action. Colonel Kelly avoided the first bad defile, that of Koragh, by keeping high up to the hills on the right bank, but we had to do a very difficult ford, and had five bad days with very hard work in the horrible defiles in front before we reached Chitral on the 20th April. The enemy retired in touch with us, and raised the siege the day before we arrived, which we did utterly tired out.

A few days later the leading troops of Sir Hugh Low's force entered Chitral from the opposite direction. We heard that our rather unexpected arrival had caused some slight momentary depression among them. Sir Hugh Low held a parade of all troops present, with the exception of the garrison, who were too feeble from their privations to come on parade. The post of honour on the right was generously assigned to Colonel Kelly's little column, of which the Kashmir guns formed the extreme right of the line.

Captain Parker, commanding No. 2 Derajat Mountain Battery of the Punjab Frontier Force, very nicely sent his battery pipers to play us on to and off parade. The mules

had not yet arrived, and we turned out with the guns still on the little ponies with the prisoners as drivers, the latter no longer prisoners and expressing their readiness to enlist. It was a curious turn-out for a battery of artillery, and we were all in rags. We were inspected by Generals Low and Gatacre.

I do not think Parker and his battery ever quite realised the pleasure their kindly act gave to the officers and men of the Kashmir artillery. It was regarded as a high compliment from the artillery of the great army of the Sirkar. I know none of them forgot it, and it was an act which appealed especially to the simple mind of the Indian soldier.

Many telegrams of congratulation were communicated to the troops of Colonel Kelly's little column on the part they had played in the operations, including one from Her Majesty Queen Victoria and one from Lord Roberts, and were highly appreciated. But to the commandant and his men the greatest act of merit remained the discarding of the cooking utensils at Gupis.

"We did the march, Sahib, with fewer cooking-pots than the Musby Sikhs!" expressed their sense of the effort they had made. In other words, the proudest and strictest of Dogras had been willing to risk breaking their caste in their endeavour to get their guns into action.

THIS is a record of absolute roguery, and all right-minded persons will do well to abstain from reading it.

To begin, I must bore the reader with a rather longwinded description of myself and my circumstances.

I was born in Edinburgh, where my father was in business as a lawyer-W.S. we call his profession. His business was very prosperous, and I was brought up with the idea in my head that I need not take the bread out of other people's mouths by working too hard, as I expected that in the course of nature a goodly heritage would be mine. mother's people were from Fife, and her only surviving relative was an old bachelor uncle who led a very simple life on a small property belonging to him on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth.

My

My father died very suddenly, and, owing to rash speculations and uncalled-for spaciousness of living, it was found that, instead of leaving a large sum of money, he died practically insolvent. My mother and my uncle soon after my father's death followed him to the Great Beyond, and I was left quite alone, except for one cousin a son of my father's only sister. This cousin, Bill Marshall, had been brought up in our house, and was my best friend. He was a civil engineer, and prom

ised to rise to distinction in that profession.

When he and I looked into my affairs after the death of my parents, we found that I was left with a very small income-about £100-and the property in Fife, which my uncle had left to me. This consisted of a small house and about forty acres of not very productive land.

As I had been brought up to no profession, this sudden change in my circumstances came as a great shock to me, and I decided that my best course was to sell everything that remained in my old home, with a very few exceptions, and go and live, for a time at any rate, in the old home in Fife, where I should live rent free, and perhaps turn an honest penny by growing vegetables or raising poultry. This I did, and found myself fairly happy, as I determined to live within my income, small though it was, and had consequently to work hard at my small industries. An elderly ploughman and his wife, who was uncle's former cook, constituted my whole establishment. In return for house room they gave me such services as my modest way of living required.

I found it hard work to make both ends meet, and spent many hours in futile regrets that I had no profession to fall back upon. I

knew little about farming, and even if I had been an expert, my poor forty acres would not yield much of an income. I let the grazing and turned my attention to poultry, pigs, bees, and such small beer. I write this to show in what a small and penurious fashion I lived. I made these small industries pay well enough to enable me to keep up my golf-occasionally-and membership of the R. & A.

At the time of which I write I was twenty-six, and had lived in this squalid manner for three years. I often thought of selling the place for what it would fetch, and trying my luck in Canada or Australia. But who would buy it, and what would it fetch Perhaps £1000, and with that capital what could I do? I lived not unhappily as I was doing, and the interest of £1000 would not better my circumstances.

One day in February I got two letters, one from an old friend in Canada, who offered to take me as a partner in a farm he was anxious to buy, provided I could contribute £5000. He was-and is-a perfectly trustworthy man, and guaranteed that this venture would pay well. He went into details, and wrote so confidently that I should have had no hesitation in joining him if only I had had the money. He said the offer would remain open for some months, so that an immediate decision was not necessary.

my cousin Bill, saying that he was going to America, where he had been offered a job, and offering a visit of farewell to me. Of course, I wrote and told him to come as soon as he liked.

He arrived next day, but in a deplorable state. He had twisted his ankle in getting out of the train, and had to be helped into the house and laid down on my sofa. However, he was in good spirits, and said he would be quite happy reading or writing, and that I was to go about my usual avocations without bothering about him.

The day after he arrived I had to go to St Andrews on business, and left him immersed in Poe's Gold Bug.' When I returned he was full of the Gold Bug,' saying it was the best tale he had ever read. By-and-by he seemed to sink into a brown study, and I could scarcely get an intelligent answer from him.

After our frugal supper he burst out: "Look here, Jack, you want to sell this place for a lot more than it is worth, don't you? Why should you not fake up a Gold Bug Cryptogram describing the exact spot where an immense treasure is buried - perhaps under the hearth-stone of your kitchen. Then some sportsman would find the cryptogram and offer you a million or so for the place as it stands?"