Cd^C^ fc^C^ C<^C^t^t^ <^C£^ C<^ C<^

AMANULLAH

the Power that Afghans had always subconsciously
believed to be their oppressors- Had not this dog of an
Amanullah, whom now they were going to tread into the
dust, learned his modern foolishness and his heresies in
the very country of these white puppies ?

" Come," said their leaders, " away with them ! "
But they listened to the man talking to them from the
Legation walls. He was unarmed. He had a cigarette
in one hand. He laughed at them. He reviled them,
cursed them, called them such names as are given only
to an enemy firmly in your grasp. Then he joked. He
seemed to enjoy his position. He made them laugh at
his own " discomfiture," as he put it. He told them
there was nothing for them in the Legation, and that in
any case they might not touch it if there were. This was
not Afghanistan, inside these walls. This was his house,
and the house of his Government!

" Begone then, Afghans, I have nothing to do with
your troubles ! I will not interfere if you do not interfere
with me! Your leader, even, the Robin Hood of the
hills, has promised me security from you. Bacha
Sachao has told you begone about your business 1 I will
have no more of you . . .! "

And while they still listened, he had jumped down
from the wall, and made his way into the Legation.

The mob looked at one another. " Evidently we did
wrong," they must have said to each other. " He has
nothing to do with that Amanullah. And we have
known him as a great hunter. . * ."

The British Legation was saved that night, by a bit of
eloquence (and a nice bit of well-chosen vulgarity ?)

Kabul was once more the scene of riotous and merry
slaughter* Old feuds were ended, by the elimination of

224