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AMANULLAH

news of you. What do you mean by it, and will you
have tea or whisky and soda ? "

It was a great welcome, and over the cool drink he told
me how red tape in the Khyber Pass had been further
entangled because I had got through owing to an official
mistake.

There would be no accommodation for me at the
Legation. As I was a journalist and therefore not very
popular, the British Legation could not offer me any
facilities or amenities. I must do the best I could with-
out their help. There was an hotel in Kabul, it was
said. . . .

We drove to the hotel, newly built and quite large.
The proprietor was even then sitting in the dusty gar-
den, consuming a drink of amazing and rich colour.
After a little time I joined him, and learnt that there
would be prepared a room on the first floor.

The driver left, and my bags were taken upstairs by
an old serving man. The room, when I inspected it,
was dusty and smelt of stale air. It contained a bed
and a washing-stand, and when I threw open the win-
dow to let in the night air, another cloud of dust blew
into the room. The bed was rusty and the blankets
obviously second-hand. There was a bell, with the air
of all bells which do not work, and when I had yelled
for assistance, new bedclothes eventually arrived and,
after another long wait, cold water.

Food, it was said by the proprietor, who spoke a little
Hindustani, would be served in an hour.

Washed and rid of much of the dust of the journey,
though it had crept through every covering and into
every particle of clothing in my bag, I went downstairs.
The gloomy hall was deserted, but in the dining-room
there was a little company of men in European clothes.
Their laughter echoed over the hotel* Their chatter was

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