To be benighted in such a country would have meant disaster, so General Westmacott selected a ridge, which he determined to hold for the night.

The wearied men were just filing up, when a tremendous rush was made by the Afridis.

For a moment, it seemed as if they would all be enveloped and swept away; but the officers threw themselves into the ranks, magazines were worked freely, and the very bushes seemed to melt away before the hail of shot.

The tribesmen were swept back in the darkness, and they never tried a second rush.

Their firing also slackened very much, and this permitted the men to form a camp, and see to the wounded.
That day the rear guard lost one officer killed and three wounded, eighteen men killed, eighty-three wounded, and six missing.