AMANULLAH

Russians were to pay a terrible price for their participa-
tion.

The attitude, traditional in the Afghan, of hostility
to the foreigner on principle, was now to be clearly
noticeable.

Though so far the rebels had respected the property
of foreigners, and had not attempted any attack on the
legations, the text of a new demand sent to Amanullah
showed their feelings. They did not promise anything.
Their declaration was in the nature of a statement of
their grievances. And prominent among these was the
presence of foreign legations in their capital. Un-
doubtedly they regarded the diplomatic relations with
other countries as the chief causes of their troubles.
The declaration gave full satisfaction to the mullahs,
who saw that with a little diplomacy they could divert
these sentiments into a renewal of the old prestige they
had enjoyed.

But at the moment, motives and ideals were sub-
jugated to action. The troops were having interesting
experiments with the guns. Only a few of them pro-
fessed familiarity with the artillery, but they were always
willing to try. And day by day the guns boomed, and
the rebels pumped shot and shell in the vague direction
of the Palace, revelling in an orgy of destruction and
considering themselves fortunate if the shell-bursts were
observed to be near their mark.

More and more irregular troops were pouring into the
old city. Every outlaw, absent from Kabul many years
through fear of the new regime, now came down from
the fastnesses of the hills to make merry in a city of
chaos. The dregs of the mountain bands who had
ravaged villages and pillaged farms and outlying ham-
lets, now surged into the alleyways of Kabul. The word
had spread rapidly. There would be no retribution for

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