three in the afternoon
I am not at all sure some accidents of that nature did not happen . So when we had fired at the Kurds enough to make them face about and so expose their rear to Ranjoor Singh , we would get to horse again and send the Kurdish horses galloping up the pass in front of us . Finally , we lost sight of most of the Kurdish horses , although we captured one apiece -- which is all a man can manage besides his own and a rifle . By that time it was three in the afternoon already and the pass forked about a dozen different ways , so that we lost the Kurds at last , they scattering to right and left and shooting at us at long range from the crags higher up . We were all dead beat , and the horses , too , so we rested , the Kurds continuing to fire at us , but doing no damage . They fired until dusk . Our own three hundred Kurdish friends were not very far behind Ranjoor Singh , and I observed when they came up with us presently that he took up position down the pass behind them .