Hurriedly assembling another dozen men, and leaving the Adjutant,
Lieutenant Barff, with directions to bring on more, he ran with his
little party after Taylor in the direction of the entrance gorge of the
Kotal camp. Two roads give access to the Malakand camp, from the plain
of Khar. At one point the Buddhist road, the higher of the two, passes
through a narrow defile then turns a sharp corner. Here, if anywhere, the
enemy might be held or at least delayed until the troops got under arms.
Overtaking Major Taylor, Colonel McRae led the party, which then
amounted to perhaps twenty men, swiftly down the road, It was a race on
which the lives of hundreds depended. If the enemy could turn the
corner, nothing could check their rush, and the few men who tried to
oppose them would be cut to pieces. The Sikhs arrived first, but by a
very little. As they turned the corner they met the mass of the enemy,
nearly a thousand strong, armed chiefly with swords and knives, creeping
silently and stealthily up the gorge, in the hope and assurance of
rushing the camp and massacring every soul in it.
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