Meantime half of No. 4 Company was nearly surrounded, and the detachment was left without a single British officer; but the occasion generally discovers the man, and he was there in the person of Subadar Arsla Khan, one of those legendary heroes of the days of Timour. I had known him for years in peace and war; he had won his Order of Merit with me on the North-West Frontiers of India, and has since added the Military Cross to his numerous decorations. Leading a counter-attack with the bayonet he gained sufficient time to pull his men together, and then, although vastly outnumbered, skilfully withdrew both companies to Messines; here the men became separated in the streets and were eventually taken in charge by Lieut. Reardon, the British interpreter attached to the battalion. In the counter-attack Jemadar Kapur Singh, a Dogra, was killed after all his men had been placed _hors de combat_. It is instructive to read in the reports that some of the men in Messines “had the good fortune” to come across an officer who spoke Hindustani, and was thus able to direct them to rejoin their Headquarters; and the report concludes with, “and some of them did arrive at Kemmel.” Necessity may know no law, but you cannot expect a dweller of these islands to ask his way of a Chinaman of the Yangtse, especially should both have the misfortune of being under a heavy fire of high explosive shell at the time. You may perhaps expect it, but one often expects too much. Captain Forbes, of whom I wrote above, was severely wounded whilst conducting his men back from the north of Wytschaete, where the Germans had gained a footing. A withdrawal also became necessary from other portions of our trenches, and Major Willans, finding his position untenable, had retired his Sikhs on to a battery near a windmill south-west of Wytschaete. Lieut. Fowler, who commanded the regimental machine-guns, was severely wounded. He had exercised his command with great coolness. Major Swifte, who had succeeded to the command of the 57th when Lieut.-Colonel Gray was wounded, collected all the men he could and on the morning of 1st November was ordered to report to G.O.C. 4th Cavalry Brigade, who directed him to take up a position on the right of the 3rd Hussars. Here he was joined by Major Willans with his own company and what remained of the companies from Messines, and late that night was ordered to report himself to O.C. 129th Baluchis.