Fatal delay occurred between Seh Baba and Kutti Sung because of a panic
among the camp followers, who, scared by a few shots, drifted backwards
and forwards in a mass, retarding the progress of the column and for the
time entirely arresting the advance of Shelton's and his rear-guard. The
force could not close up until the morning, ten miles short of Jugdulluk,
and already the Afghans were swarming on every adjacent height. All the
way down the broken slope to Jugdulluk the little column trudged through
the gauntlet of jezail fire which lined the road with dead and wounded.
Shelton and his rear-guard handful performed wonders, again and again
fending off with close fire and levelled bayonets the fierce rushes of
Ghilzais charging sword in hand. The harassed advance reached Jugdulluk
in the afternoon of the 11th, and took post behind some ruins on a height
by the roadside, the surviving officers forming line in support of the
gallant rear-guard struggling forward through its environment of
assailants. As Shelton and his brave fellows burst through the cordon
they were greeted by cheers from the knoll. But there was no rest for the
exhausted people, for the Afghans promptly occupied commanding positions
whence they maintained a fire from which the ruins afforded but scant
protection. To men parched with thirst the stream at the foot of their
knoll was but a tantalising aggravation, for to attempt to reach it was
certain death.
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