Throughout the month of March the General was kept busy with the preparation and execution of some extensive manoeuvres which took place on the hills near Khandalla. There was also a Horse Show in Bombay to attend to; this was on a bigger scale than had hitherto been attempted. The General rode in several classes, and won the first prize for Arab chargers, and also for the best turn-out in the driving classes. The cheers that greeted him as he appeared in the prize-winners' parade were significant of the public appreciation of the energy that, as chairman of the committee, he had thrown into the undertaking.
Leaves Bombay
On the evening of April 7, as the General Officer Commanding sailed in the transport Warren Hastings for Karachi, en route for Quetta, the nine-gun salute boomed out its farewell greeting in the summer night.
This First-class District, with its headquarters on the lofty plateau known as Quetta, about 6,000 ft. high, was a command wholly congenial to Gatacre's temperament. The office-work was very light; there was a garrison of two battalions of British infantry, one regiment of Native cavalry, and two of Native infantry, besides a complement of artillery, equipped both with oxen and mules, a splendid transport train, and other details. The outposts are on the actual frontier of the British Empire; their very distance and inaccessibility exercised a great attraction for him, so that the official visit to each station became a picnic pleasure-party in a very literal sense. Nothing was wanting, not even battle, murder, and sudden death, to create that sense of danger and adventure that casts its fascinating shadow over this wild frontier land.
As the season in which marching could be accomplished in comfort was already advanced, and the days were fast growing hot and long, it was decided to start very soon after our arrival on a tour of inspection to Fort Sandeman, Lorelai, and other outlying posts. Fort Sandeman lies to the north-east of Quetta, and is in the Lower Zhob Valley; it is 180 miles from Khanai station on the Quetta Railway. A squadron of the 5th Sind Horse, under Captain Sherard, furnished the escort. No supplies could be reckoned on by the way, so that transport had to be drawn to carry six weeks' food for five mounted officers, their servants and horses, and also for the hundred Sowars and their horses, and for the transport animals themselves. This made quite a long line of horses, camels, and mules on the march, and one of the duties of our daily routine was a walk down the transport lines at sunset.
There is not space here to do justice to this delightful ride. We covered between six and seven hundred miles in the six weeks we were out. The early starts while the moon shone brilliantly, the long leisurely days in camp, the evening scramble over the nearest hills, and the nights passed under the clear stars, with no sound but the steady tramp of the sentries; the puzzling alternation of sandy desert and rocky rift, dry nullahs and roaring torrents,—all make up memories of strange and delightful doings never to be spoilt, even by the counter recollections of sun and dust.
In the autumn of the same year Fort Sandeman was the scene of a shocking tragedy. A Sepoy of the 40th Pathans ran amok while on sentry duty one evening outside the officers' mess. According to his deposition later, he had been waiting to get all the five officers into line as they wandered round the billiard-table, so that he might strike them all with one bullet. But the finesse of his idea was defeated by his own impatience; he fired his shot when only three men were covered. Two young officers were so seriously wounded that they fell immediately, and died a few hours later. With great presence of mind and courage, and undismayed by a severe wound in the arm, Mr. Maclachlan gave chase to the murderer, and by raising the alarm and calling out the guard contributed to his capture, though unfortunately this was not effected till the tehsildar and two native clerks had been shot dead.
It was the custom to make the last afternoon of an inspection visit the occasion for a social gathering; sports and trials of skill would be arranged, the native regiments would perform feats of horsemanship, and organize a display of national dancing and wrestling. One peculiarly striking effect was worked out by an officer in the 15th Bengal Lancers at Lorelai. Thirty-two Sowars in their white undress uniform, mounted on white or grey horses, cantered past doing sword-practice, their curved blades flashing in the sun; but the ghostly effect of these white horsemen was enhanced when they were followed by another group mounted entirely on chestnuts, doing lance-practice, the red and white pennons and scarlet cummerbunds adding to the colour scheme.
Lorelai also contributed its note of tragedy, for very shortly after our departure from Beluchistan, Colonel Gaisford (soldier and civilian) was treacherously assassinated in the very dak-bungalow in which we had resided.