gO A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
household inside out to cater to the comfort of Gandhiji.
He drove his son into what was obviously intended to be
the servants' quarters and himself slept wherever he
could. His eye was never off Gandhiji and he kept con-
stant vigil ovej* him as a mother lion does over her little
cub. One should have seen him move about with soft,
cautious steps to see that everything was all right while
Gandhiji slept. Now he would gently adjust over Gan-
dhiji the cloth that had slipped off, or with his kerchief
whisk off flies when no one was near, and then as un-
obtrusively glide out of the room when somebody turned
up to take his place. He ransacked the fruit orchards of
friends and neighbours to fetch for Gandhiji the pick of
the fruit. It was a sight when one fine morning, he
quietly slipped out of the house and returned after several
hours with a big bunch of early grapes which he served
to Gandhiji with his own hands ! It transpired after-
wards that he had gone out to pay a casual visit to the
chief of the Khudai Khidmatgars at the latter's residence,
some two or three miles from Utmanzai, where his con-
stant concern .for Gandhiji led him to spot out that prize
bunch hidden among the vine clusters ! This was just an
Instance of the delicate attention with which he surround-
ed Gandhiji. Before leaving for Kohat he decided to have a
busful of his seasoned Khudai Khidmatgars to accompany
Gandhiji during the rest of the tour.
Kohat District lies in the heart of the North West
Frontier Province. The town and cantonment of Kohat
which occupy the western portion of the Kohat tahsil are
forty miles drive from Peshawar, part of the road lying
through the independent territory of the Pass Afridis.
The Kohat Pass is not so long as the Khyber. The Khyber
has been variously termed " murderous high road",
" boulevard of sudden death " and so on. The sinister
silence of its narrow defiles strikes one with awe. It is
always the Khyber, " bold, bloody and untamed, unbeaten,
triumphant and above all unpredictable ". The Kohat Pass
Is more rugged, more inspiring for its savage beauty and