Six or seven miles above the mine the gorge contracted, leaving a space that barely exceeded twice the breadth of the aeroplane. In his first flights along the river Bob had felt rather nervous in threading this narrow passage. It was here that he found the two parties of miners. He reduced the speed of the aeroplane as much as he could, and at the altitude to which he had now ascended he was able to get a pretty good general view of the position of affairs as he flew over. It was impossible to distinguish details. The figures of the men were like dots on a map. The track and the adjacent ground seemed absolutely flat and level, though Bob knew that it was really much broken, and of constantly varying height. But he made rapid inferences from what he saw, and by the time he had passed over both the parties of combatants he was in no doubt as to his course of action. What he saw was, up-stream, a small group, stationary, in the narrowest part of the valley: some little distance from them, down-stream, a larger group, also stationary, and a number of scattered individuals, moving southward, looking like flies crawling slowly over a dish, but all in the same direction. The inference he drew from these observations was that the Pathans, having been kept on the run to this point, had taken advantage of the nature of the ground to turn at bay, either in desperation, or to snatch a rest before continuing their retreat: and that the Kalmucks had separated, one party holding the track, the other scaling the hill-side above in order to turn the Pathans’ flank. At the moment of his passing over he heard a faint crackle like the rustling of paper, and saw puffs of smoke among each band of combatants. The men were firing briskly, no doubt from behind the shelter of rocks. It was obvious that there could be but one end to this fight. The Kalmucks were much the more numerous. While the Pathans might very probably repulse a direct attack if their ammunition lasted, they could have no defence against the men creeping round upon their flank. Within a short time they would be surrounded, unless, indeed, they perceived the flanking movement and beat a hasty retreat. Even then they would be in danger of annihilation, for the Kalmucks could rush the position they had evacuated, and from behind the rocks sweep the southward track with their fire. Unless a diversion were almost instantly made, the Pathans were doomed.