It was a V.C. business, this saving of the guns, but when it came to a question of making the award a difficulty arose. Every man of the battery might be said to have an equal claim to be decorated. As a few Crosses only could be awarded, however, Rule 13 of the original Warrant had to be enforced, under which the honour was conferred upon the battery as a whole, one officer, one non-commissioned officer, one gunner and one driver being elected by their comrades as recipients. Of the two officers, Major Phipps-Hornby and Captain Humphreys, who had taken the leading part in the affair, each had displayed conspicuous gallantry, and each with characteristic generosity nominated the other for the decoration. One would like to have seen both of them gazetted, but the rule had to be adhered to, and, as senior officer, the V.C. was presented to Major Phipps-Hornby. Sergeant Parker, Gunner Lodge, and Driver Glasock hold the other three Crosses of the corps for this notable action. Yet another hero of Korn Spruit is Lieutenant (now Lieut.-Col.) F. A. Maxwell, of the Indian Army, then attached to Roberts’ Light Horse. When the Boer fire was concentrated on Q Battery, he volunteered his assistance and faced the blizzard of lead five times, helping to save two guns and three limbers. It was he, too, who aided in the gallant but futile attempt to bring in the fifth gun, remaining exposed to shot and shell until the last moment. For his bravery Lieutenant Maxwell was awarded the V.C., and it is worthy of note that in announcing the fact the _Gazette_ refers to his gallantry during the Chitral campaign, when he recovered the body of Lieut.-Col. F. D. Battye, of the “Guides,” under a heavy fire from the enemy. CHAPTER XXIX. SOMALILAND--NIGERIA--TIBET. Within the last four years we have seen three campaigns of some importance which have added several V.C.’s to the roll. In 1902-3 was the punitive expedition against the Mad Mullah in Somaliland, bringing distinction to Captain Cobbe and others; in 1903 the rising in Nigeria, where, at Sokoto, Captain Wallace Wright (of the Royal West Surrey Regiment), with only one officer and forty men, made a gallant stand for two hours against the repeated charges of 1000 of the enemy’s cavalry and 2000 infantry, eventually putting this large force to rout; and in 1904 the Sikkim-Tibet Mission, which yielded a V.C. to a young lieutenant of Ghurkas named Grant. Of these campaigns that in Somaliland heads the list with six Crosses, and the story of how they were won well deserves to be told at length.