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EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

women. Fat Inayatullah was with him in the central
court, perhaps seeing at last that there must be some-
thing in this training for warfare. . . . Relatives and
friends and courtiers were there, directing the occasional
fire of the soldiers from the upper storeys.

But bullets were precious. The Palace was never an
armoury, and he knew now that the mob from the hills
had broken their way into the arsenal and were using,
for the first time in their lives, new Italian and French
rifles, with which they were delighted, and thousands
of rounds per man. They had reached, too, the heavy
artillery, so long the prize of Amanullah's heart.

There came again the boom of a gun, and the Palace
rocked with the shock as the compound was churned
up once more with high explosive. The shells were
coming over the British Legation, most of them sadly
missing their mark, but many of them being sufficiently
close to make Amanullah realise that sooner or later a
lucky shot would crumple up the remains of his last
bolting hole.

From behind, came a reply from the last of his gallant
band of artillerymen who had remained loyal. The shell
screamed over the British Legation, and the crash of
its landing near the old parade ground caused him to
wonder whether by chance one might strike the arsenal
and end, once and for all, the history of Kabul and all
its inhabitants.

Only sixty shells were so wide of the mark as to fall
in the Legation. About half this number failed to
explode. But, often enough, the desperate King must
have given a thought to how Sir Francis was faring.

As a fact, conditions in the Legation were much better
than in the Royal Palace. One or two of the outlying
residences were razed to the ground. The structure was
pitted with bullet holes, and shells had torn off portions

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