EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

end of the world. It seemed as if it would be mercy if
the great hills moved one day, ground their sides
together, and exterminated the sole visible haunt of man,
pulverising the scene of his degradation, cruelty, and
ignorance. Its history should be shown to those who
decry, so decoratively and logically, the advances of
civilisation. The so-called evils of modernity had never
penetrated, and might never penetrate, to this God-
forsaken corner of a harsh and cruel land.

But the driver and the " ballast " seemed pleased
enough, and after giving the engine water, they tumbled
in and the back-breaking journey began once more. We
were climbing at last, and the road improved a little as it
wound round the shoulders of the hills, leaving below us
that hamlet in which I seemed to have reviewed all the
evil of the East.

We saw mule trains, far below us in the valleys,
making their slow way along the old tracks that lead by
the side of the trickling streams. We saw one or two
road-menders, sitting under improvised shelters from the
sun. They had erected sticks and thrown over them
their coats. Under this they hammered at the stones,
breaking off their work to watch us go by, and cursing us
as the dust flew up behind and blinded them. Near each
man was leaning his rifle.

The long line of telegraph poles led straight up the side
of the hills. It was the link with the Western world, and
over its wires had come many messages to the British
Government which decided history in Afghanistan. It
was, I heard, an object of considerable hostility from the
Afghans of these parts, who considered it presumption
for a wire to be laid across the country merely that the
hated foreigners could talk to each other,

Then we came to a blockhouse, high up on the side of
the road, where there was a company of Afghan troops,

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