getting what they knew out of them by simple-looking questions. Of
course I couldn't do this as I didn't know their language, and the
presence of a British officer put them on their guard at once.

Between Rahman and Mastuj the country is pretty much the same, a narrow
valley running between high, stony hills, their tops covered with snow
and their feet with boulders; then the bed of the valley more or less
rocky, and the river winding from side to side, and below the main level
of the valley, at depths varying from fifty to two hundred feet, the
sides nearly always sheer cliff; at intervals were nullahs, down which
ran streams of snow water from the hills to the river, or fans of
alluvial deposit brought down by floods in previous years. On the flank
of one such fan we found the village of Gasht, which we reached by 3.30
P.M. The Levies had already occupied the knoll at the lower end of the
village from whence the enemy had before been seen; so, after fixing on
a camping ground and giving the necessary orders, the officers all went
forward to have a look.

From the top of the knoll there was an extended view of the valley, and
I was able to point out the position of Mastuj, which was hidden by some
rising ground, and also the general direction of the road. About three
miles ahead we could distinctly see a sangar filled with men on the left
bank of the river. That sangar was, as far as we could judge, on the
right flank of the enemy's line. A few men could also be seen climbing a
steep stone shoot on the right bank of the river, so evidently the enemy
were going to try the effect of a stone avalanche as we went underneath.
A good deal of discussion went on as to whether the enemy's main defence
was on the left bank, in which case we should have to attack across the
river, or on the right bank, in which case the present visible sangar
was a flanking bastion.