On the 7th, under cover of a heavy rifle fire, a party of the enemy crept up to the tower at the south-eastern corner and managed to set it on fire. A strong wind was blowing, and for some time matters looked very serious, as the tower, being largely composed of wood, burned fiercely. No sooner did the fire seem to be mastered than it blazed up again; the enemy, occupying the high ground, were able to fire upon men going in and out of the tower with water and earth; the British Agent and a Sikh soldier were here wounded, while a sentry of the Kashmir Rifles was killed. On the 10th an attack was made on the waterway, and on the morning of the 17th the enemy could distinctly be heard at work upon a mine, leading to the same tower as that attacked on the 7th. It was clear that the entrance of the mine was in a summer-house about a hundred and fifty feet from the tower, and which there had been no time to demolish; while from the distinctness with which the sound of digging could be heard, the mine had evidently reached within a few feet of the base of the tower. It was decided to make a sortie, carry the summer-house where it was thought the mine shaft would be found, and destroy the mine, since matters had gone too far to counter-mine. [Sidenote: Harley’s Sortie] For this duty forty men of the 14th Sikhs, with their _jemadar_, and sixty of the Kashmir Rifles, with a native officer, were placed under command of Lieutenant H. K. Harley, 14th Sikhs, with orders to leave the fort at 4 p.m. by the east gate, rush the summer-house, and hold it on the enemy’s side, while the rest of the party destroyed or blew in the mine gallery. The summer-house was taken with a loss of two men killed, the defenders—some thirty Pathans—bolting to the cover of a wall and opening fire from thence upon Harley’s party. Leaving some men to keep these in check, Harley led the remainder to the mine shaft, just outside the summer-house. Thirty-five Chitralis, armed with swords, came out and were at once bayoneted. Harley now cleared the mine, arranged powder and fuse, but it was untamped and the charge exploded prematurely; none the less the effect was excellent, the mine being burst open right up to the foot of the tower, and lying exposed like a trench. Two prisoners were brought in, two of the enemy were killed in the mine by the explosion, two Pathans were shot in the summer-house, and many of the enemy were shot down by the covering fire from the walls of the fort. Harley’s party had eight men killed and thirteen wounded. The enemy now seemed to have made their last effort; they had learnt that the defenders were still able to assume a vigorous offensive, and they knew that help was drawing nearer from the direction of Gilgit. On the night of the 18th–19th the investing force quietly withdrew and abandoned the siege; Sher Afzul and the Jandol chiefs fled that night to Bashkar and Asmar, and on the afternoon of the 20th the Gilgit force marched in.