AMANULLAH

Before many days' residence in Rome, however, he
had heard news from the East which must have caused
him intense personal and patriotic satisfaction. Nadir
Khan, recently Minister in Paris, had gone back. The
news shook the East. The heroism of the man, fresh
from a sick bed in Europe, thrilled every hearer.
Instinctively, those who read of his sudden journey over
the Frontier, prophesied that he was going to his
death,

Nadir Khan was consumed with a fire of unquenchable
patriotism that kept his frail body alive. He had been
convalescing in Nice from a serious illness when he
received the call to go back to his country. It was a
spontaneous urge that sent him hurrying to the East,
to the hotel where I saw him in Peshawar. When he
joined his train at Nice, he staggered as he walked.
He was sick unto death. Yet he held his fine body
upright by magnificent will-power, and when he had
conducted his mysterious business in Peshawar, he
strode boldly across the Frontier, into the land savagely
ruled by the arch-enemy of his former master.

None knew of his coming. He had counted on few
supporters. He had no money, and it was only with
difficulty that he was allowed through the Khyber.
He was leading a forlorn hope. It was more than likely
that bands of marauding tribesmen would cut him to
pieces at sight if they recognised that here was a
prominent ally of the late King. Yet he went with
hope in his heart, and a great pride*

There was yet another factor, of merely personal
importance to him, unconnected with the urge which
made him undertake this crazy journey in pursuit of
leadership once more. His wife and children were in
Kabul Gaol, in the company of some fifty other women
and children, captured during the victorious raid on the

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