CHAPTER XH
ACROSS THE SALT RANGE
With Dera Ismail Khan ended GandhijYs tour of the
trans-Indus districts of the North-West Frontier Province,
Leaving Dera Ismail Khan in the afternoon we entered
upon the last lap of the tour. Gandhiji was anxious not
to extend his tour a day further than absolutely neces-
sary into the month of Ramzan. The punctilious care
with which our Mussulman hosts throughout the tour and
Badshah Khan and his Old Guard of the Khudai Khid-
matgars looked after the feeding and other creature-com-
forts of Gandhiji and his party while they themselves
fasted, made Gandhiji all the more determined to apply
in his own case the principle of noblesse oblige. He made-
a feeling reference .to it in the course of his talk with
the Khudai Khidmatgars in a small way-side village
where we halted for our midday meal later. " It has
touched me deeply and also humbled me to find/' he ob-
served, " that at a time, when owing to the Ramzan fast,
not a kitchen fire was lit in the whole of this village of
Mussulman homes, food had to be cooked for us. I am.
past the stage when I could fast with you as I did in South
Africa to teach the Mussulman boys who were under my
care to keep the Ramzan fast. I had also to consider the
feelings of Badshah Khan who had made my physical
well-being his day-and-night concern and who would have
felt embarrassed if I fasted. I can only ask your pardon.""
The rest of the journey was a mad rush. We covered
over one hundred miles on the first day, striking out into
the interior to take in the village of Paniala, ten miles
from the main road. Evening had already fallen when
we reached Mirekhel and the roads were barricaded. Tra-
velling on this section of the road was not considered safe_r
and no traffic was permitted after 4 p.m. But Badshah
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