Nevertheless we must skip, so were just moving off when Pierre rushed up and reported the enemy had seized and were holding the only path we knew leading out of the confounded clearing. Even this Job’s comforter did not daunt our gallant O.C., who at once summoned the prisoners and demanded if there was any other path leading out of the place we could make use of, at the same time politely informing them that if there was not, much as he regretted the necessity, he would be forced to order their immediate execution. This reasoning they saw was sound, and they at once promptly replied that there was another road, and that rather than linger any longer on that insalubrious spot they would guide us out by it. Now this was real kind of them, so we carried the wounded off, leaving a rear-guard of only thirty-five men to cover our retreat, and it was fortunate, not only for themselves, but for the whole of us, that they were a splendid lot of well-trained old hands who were conversant with every wrinkle in bush fighting, and moreover had as commander one of the bravest and most experienced officers in the country. Nor were we going to have a very rosy time of it, as carrying a heavy man in a blanket along a narrow, crooked path running through dense bush and over a terribly rough and broken country is no child’s play. Remember that on a bush footpath stretchers are of no use, the unfortunate wounded must therefore be lugged along either in men’s arms or doubled up in a blanket; that we had none of those drugs nor appliances that now rob the battlefield and hospital of half their terrors and that even on reaching camp a fern bed with a rolled-up blanket for a pillow was the only accommodation a wounded man could hope for. At the front there was no chloroform, medical comforts nor nurses, so that the lot of a wounded man was by no means a happy one. Well, we were nearly clear of the bush when the Colonel called me and pointing out a low rough hill said: “Burke, you see that hill, the path runs half way round its base and we shall be in open ground when we get past it, but if the enemy gain possession of it we shall lose heavily. Now, I want you to take ten men, make for the top of it as fast as ever you can, and hold it till Northcroft and the rear-guard win past.” Hastily summoning the first available ten men, among whom were old Jack, Pierre, George, Buck and Tim, the rest of them being friendly Maoris, we pushed for the hill as fast as we could get over the ground, reaching the top of it just in the nick of time, for as we surmounted its crest we ran bang into a dozen Hau Haus who were struggling up the other side.