CHAPTER XIV

HELL BREAKS LOOSE—THE SPEECH THAT SATED A SLAUGHTER
—FLIGHT OF A KING—THE THREE-DAY RULER—A
MYSTERY TRAIN THROUGH INDIA

riTlHAT night, January 6, 1929, hell broke loose

I in Kabul. Old Bala Hissar in ruins looking
-*- over the city, with a wealth of bloody memories
saturating the old stones, could surely never have known
a position of such delicacy. The scene was lit by the
flames from granaries and houses on the outskirts of
the city. Up in the hills, at Paghman, there was a glow
in the sky which promised iU for some of the modern
buildings and the fancy, elaborate new cinema.

In Kabul bazaar itself there was darkness. Every
shop was shuttered and barred. Men hurried through
the streets, watching their step and peering round the
corners before they advanced further. There was a
noisy gathering in one of the compounds, and it is evi-
dent that the old Afghan had broken his bonds of
abstinence for just that night.

But out near the Royal Palace, and in the roads
leading about the foreign legations, the noise reached
its crescendo.

No history book will ever tell the full details of how
Sir Francis Humphrys persuaded both sides in a bloody
domestic war to keep off British soil No bald explana-
tion will describe why only sixty shells were found in
the British Legation after that night of horror* The
secret is with the present High Commissioner for Iraq,
and perhaps he will admit that he does not really under-

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