It was in this desperate struggle of bayonet versus spear and sword that Gunner Smith saw his officer, Lieutenant Guthrie, prone on the ground and at the mercy of the enemy. The gunner had only a handspike for weapon, but with this he rushed forward, hurling himself like a thunderbolt upon the Soudanees. He was in the nick of time. One of the warriors was in the very act of plunging his spear into Guthrie’s breast when the handspike crashed upon his head and stretched him lifeless. Standing over the fallen lieutenant’s body, Smith kept the enemy at bay, and he was still at his post when the ranks had recovered from the shock of the onset and filled up the gap in the square. Then he was relieved of his charge, but unfortunately his gallantry had not availed to save the lieutenant’s life. Guthrie had been mortally wounded when he fell. * * * * * Taking a leap of several years, I may fittingly tell here of how some more recent V.C.’s of the Soudan were won. At Omdurman, where on September 2nd, 1898, the Khalifa was finally routed, the 21st Lancers covered themselves with glory through a famous charge, and three of their number inscribed their names on the Roll of Valour. It was after the Khalifa’s futile attempt to storm the zereba where the British troops lay strongly entrenched that the Lancers’ opportunity to distinguish themselves came. While the main body of the army marched steadily forward in the direction of Omdurman, the 21st, under Colonel R. H. Martin, were sent to Jebel Surgham to see if any of the enemy were in hiding there and to prevent any attempt on their part to occupy that position. Away down the bank of the Nile rode the four squadrons, A, B, C, and D, meeting with scattered parties of dervishes who fired fitfully at them. Just south of Surgham, behind the hills, some seven hundred or more Soudanese cavalry and infantry were suddenly espied hiding in a khor, or hollow, and Colonel Martin passed the word that these were to be cleared out. Forming in line, the Lancers galloped forward. As they neared the khor a sharp musketry fire broke out, which emptied a few saddles, and then to their dismay they saw that instead of only a few hundred of the enemy there were nearly three thousand Mahdists concealed there. There was no time for hesitation. Go forward they must. So, rising in his stirrups, with sword on high, the colonel cried “Charge!” and, closing in, the squadrons dashed into their foes.