With Kelly to Chitral | Page 7

Trials were then made of the ground at the sides
of the valley, but the snow was found equally deep and soft there; and
after spending an hour or so in futile attempts to get forward, it became
evident to all that no animal could possibly pass over the snowfield in
its present condition. We had only gone some eight miles out of the

thirteen to Langar, and it was already three o'clock. There was nothing,
therefore, for it but to return, and the word to retire was reluctantly
passed along the line, and each man, turning where he stood, moved
slowly back towards Ghizr.
But though laden or unladen animals could not cross the pass, we saw
no reason to suppose that men could not, and therefore, at Teru, which
we reached by four o'clock, a halt was made, and two hundred Pioneers,
with Borradaile and Cobbe, and the Sappers under Oldham, were
detailed to remain there with the Hunza Levies, and to try and force
their way across the pass the next day. Borradaile was to receive all the
coolie transport, which he was to send back as soon as he got across the
pass, in order that we might follow with the remainder of the troops.
His orders were to entrench himself at Laspur, which was the first
village across the pass, and if possible open communications with
Mastuj.
The guns were immediately sent back to Ghizr, and we set to work to
sort out the kits of Borradaile's party from the remainder. The
unavoidable confusion at first was something dreadful. First of all, the
kits had to be unloaded, then those of Borradaile's party separated and
put on one side; the remaining kits were then loaded on the ponies and
sent off, as fast as the ponies could be loaded up, back to Ghizr. The
ammunition had to be divided, and as much as possible given over in
the way of supplies. All this time we had to have a ring of sentries
round to stop the coolies from bolting, but as soon as we had got the
ponies off, the coolies were collected, and sat down in the snow under a
guard. Borradaile's party were then told off into the different houses,
and the coolies likewise, still under guard, the ammunition and supplies
stacked, and the job was done.
By this time it was about seven o'clock, getting dark, and also
beginning to snow. All of us, officers and men, were covered with
slush and mud from head to foot, and dripping wet. Smith, who was
going with Borradaile's party, had, however, managed to get a fire
going in one of the houses, and had got some tea ready, bless him! We
had a cup all round, and wished Borradaile and his party good luck.

The remainder of us plunged out into the darkness and snow and
splashed back to Ghizr. The men, who had started some time before us,
were comfortably in their former quarters when we reached Ghizr.
On the way we met Stewart, who had just returned from his coolie hunt,
and was seated on a rock, like Rachel mourning for her children, only
in his case he was murmuring, not because the guns were not, but
because they were back in Ghizr. "His guns were going over that pass
even if he had to carry them himself, you may bet your boots on that!
and begad, I'll set the gunners to cut a road; and d'ye think now the
snow would bear the mules at night when it was frozen at all?"
We got back to the huts we had left in the morning by 8.30 P.M., and
there was a general demand for something hot. Our servants, luckily,
had been sent back straight, so it was not long before we had something
to eat; that was our first meal since 5.30 A.M., and it was now about 9
P.M. We had marched some sixteen miles through snow, and been on
foot for some fifteen hours, and here we were back in the same place
we had started from. Since midday we had been pretty well wet through,
and the wind and cold had peeled the skin off our faces till it hung in
flakes; still we were lucky in having a roof over our heads, as it had
now started to snow in earnest. After dinner we weren't long before
turning in.
We were up early the next morning, but Stewart and Gough were up
still earlier, and were making sledges and trying experiments with loads.
They came in flushed with success, swearing that they had dragged the
whole ammunition of the guns by themselves across half a mile of
snow, and that they would have the guns over the pass in