We were soon descending into the Laspur valley, and we had hardly dropped three hundred feet before all sense of sickness left me, and I felt as fit as possible.  A short way out of the village we were met by a patrol which Borradaile had sent out to meet us, and by two o’clock we were in camp, where we found Oldham in command, Borradaile having gone on a reconnaissance down the valley.  The previous day news had been brought in that the enemy were assembled in the valley, and a small party had gone out, as I have already related.  On the morning of the 6th April, Borradaile accordingly determined on another reconnaissance, this time taking the guns with him, they being carried by Laspuri villagers, who no doubt thought the game very poor fun.  Gough went with the party, Oldham remaining in command of the post, which was garrisoned with the maimed, the halt, and the blind—­in other words, with men suffering from frostbite and snow blindness, of whom there were some twenty-six of the former and thirty of the latter; those men of the Kashmir troops who were fit to march being sent back across the pass as escort to the coolies.

When the reconnoitring party had gone some three miles down the valley, they came across the old camp fires of the enemy.  At Rahman, two miles farther on, they left the snow behind, much to everybody’s delight, and by one o’clock entered the village of Gasht, some eleven miles from Laspur, and about half-way to Mastuj, the Levies crowning a small knoll in the middle of the valley at the lower end of the village.  From here they reported they could see the enemy some three miles farther down the valley, who were evidently engaged in building sangars and entrenching themselves.  A short council of war was held as to the advisability of attacking them, but, considering that the force consisted of only a little over a hundred men and some fifty Levies, besides the two guns, and also the time of day, it was decided to return to camp, which was reached by dark.  The day’s work was highly creditable to all concerned; the march to Gasht and back had been some twenty-two miles, and information had been obtained of the position in which we might expect opposition from the enemy.  On getting into camp, Borradaile’s party found Colonel Kelly and myself waiting their arrival, eager to hear their news.

CHAPTER IV

FROM LASPUR TO GASHT

That night we had beef for dinner.  This may appear a trivial fact, but it meant a great and blessed change from the eternal mutton we had been living on, none of us having tasted beef for quite six months, except in its condensed or tinned state, which does not count.  Gilgit is a dependency of Kashmir, whose ruling family, being Hindus, strongly object to cow-killing, and therefore the law runs that no cows are to be slaughtered; hence none of us since crossing the bridge at Kohalla had tasted fresh beef.  But now we were in Chitral