The British soldiers are doing some very fine work on the Indianfrontier.
During the past week an engagement has taken place in which some of thehardest fighting of the war occurred.
According to the despatches, the Afridis occupied some rising groundwhich was known by the name of the Dargai Ridge. It was necessary forthe British troops in their advance to pass across this ridge, and sothe Afridis had to be dislodged from it.
A detachment of soldiers was sent forward to perform this task, andaccomplished it so easily that in a very short space of time the enemyhad all been driven off, and the village of Dargai was in flames.
The tribesmen seemed to have been completely routed, and to have leftthe country, so no particular pains was taken to fortify and hold theconquered ridge; instead the preparations for the advance were hurriedforward.
The routing of the Afridis occurred on Monday; the British troops wereready to start early on Wednesday morning, but just as all was inreadiness for the move, the tribesmen suddenly reappeared in greatlyincreased numbers, and swarming in on every side reoccupied the ridge.
This was a severe blow to the British, because the work of dislodgingthe enemy had to be done all over again. The Afridis lay right in thepath of the British, and must be made to move.
This time the task was more difficult.
The Afridis had taken up a much stronger position than the one they hadoccupied on Monday, and had established their main body on anexceedingly steep hill, about a thousand feet high, which commanded theroute the advancing army was obliged to take.
The height and the steepness of the hill were, however, but a small partof the difficulty with which the British forces had to contend. The realserious point lay in the fact that there was but one path by which thesummit of the hill could be reached, and this was only wide enough forone man to pass at a time. It was therefore impossible to send largebodies of troops against the enemy, and there was the terrible dangerthat sharpshooters might pick off the men one by one as they tried toascend the path.
The work had, however, to be done, and an English regiment and twotroops of native soldiers were sent forward to storm the hill.
Between the position occupied by the English and that held by their foeslay an open space of rough and rocky ground, which was within riflerange of the Afridis.
Stationing some of their best shots half-way down the hill, thetribesmen waited patiently while the English made their way across theopen space.
The advance was extremely difficult owing to the rough nature of theground, the soldiers having actually to climb from rock to rock.
As soon as the English were well within rifle range, the tribesmen, whohad not fired a shot until the troops were in the bad ground, openedsuch a deadly fire on them that the on-coming troops were checked. Allthis time the British artillerymen were assailing the sharpshooters withshot and shell, trying their best to drive them