264 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



fully again, when, in less than forty-eight hours after 

 their return to camp, a portion of them were again 

 warned for night-marching by the same general. 



"While yet these events were passing round Maid- 

 anak, a small party of the 27th Native Infantry, 

 under a havildar, had escorted a long string of camels 

 and mules through Pesh Bolak to the nearest Shin- 

 warree villages in that neighbourhood, in the wake of 

 a Gomashta native commissariat official, who was bent 

 on purchasing a large quantity of forage. They had 

 gone some miles from camp, and had made several 

 purchases, when suddenly a row was heard ahead, 

 and presently the fat Gomashta came flying back 

 towards the sepoys, pursued hotly by three or four 

 Pathans. These seeing the escort, fired into them, 

 and were soon joined by twenty or thirty others. 

 The havildar sent his charge quickly to the rear, and 

 putting his men in skirmishing order, quietly retired 

 without returning the fire till he had cautiously 

 and thoughtfully passed all the Shinwarree towers. 

 He then took up a position behind a pile of stones 

 and waited for his assailants, who, emboldened by 

 the quietness of the sepoys, now came carelessly on. 

 A sudden volley prostrated a young chief and two of 

 his men ; a second made the Pathans seek cover, and 

 the sepoys came back to Bussawal without loss. The 

 instigators of the attack were discovered, and it was 

 determined to destroy their towers. 



Late at night General Tytler, with about 1000 



