In another hour Walter was being whirled along in a train, he cared not whither; he had taken his ticket almost at random for a place of which he scarcely knew the name, and whose recommendation was that it was so retired that he was not likely to meet there with any one who knew him. There, in a dreary dák-bungalow* young Gurney lay for some days in a fever; before he had thoroughly recovered, Sir Cæsar and his daughter had started for England.
* A kind of inn, provided by Government for the convenience of travellers.
Walter Gurney had narrowly escaped from one of the chief perils of his life—that of union with a vain and worldly woman, who would sooner have drawn him down to her own level than have risen up to his. He had all but crossed over the stile into the Bypath Meadow described by Bunyan, which leads to the territory of Giant Despair; that he had not done so was the result of faith's upward glance at the pillar of cloud and fire.
CHAPTER XX.
A POST OF PERIL.
It is now time to return to the little band of Afghan converts left in the Eagle's Nest.
Whilst Walter had been basking in the dangerous glare of prosperity, a sharp storm of trial had been sweeping over his native friends. He had not been fully aware how all-important had been the support of an Englishman's influence, talent, and courage, to the newly-baptised chief, Ali Khan. It was now as if the principal pillar supporting an edifice had been taken away, or a vessel in a gale had been reft both of its main-mast and rudder. Yet as a building may still stand, though its strongest prop be removed, and a vessel float on the waves though main-mast and rudder be lost, so the chief in the Eagle's Nest for years held his dangerous post. This was chiefly owing to the following three causes.
Ali Khan was a brave and—until his baptism—a popular leader. Though he now discouraged war and forbade plunder, no one could doubt the courage of a man who had slain a bear single-handed, and who had brought home more trophies of the chase than did any other hunter in the clan. Once finding three of his men, against his express orders, looting and beating a travelling merchant, Ali Khan had knocked down the chief offender, expelled him from the tribe, and made the two others undergo the bastinado. This vigorous execution of justice had for a time a very salutary effect on the minds of his turbulent followers. The Afghans saw that they had to deal with no child.
And Ali Khan, as the husband of Sultána, commanded a certain amount of respect. The young eaglet had from childhood been the darling of the clan, and now they were proud of her, Christian as she was, as being, in their eyes, the brightest, bravest, most beautiful woman in all their land. Sultána was no pardah prisoner in her zenana; her light step, the glance of her eye, the tones of her voice were familiar to all in the fort. There were many who had received from her personal kindness not readily to be forgotten. In everything relating to the management of his troublesome people, Sultána was to her husband more than a right hand.
There was a third advantage possessed by the chief. From the manner in which Walter Gurney had been received at the English camp, it was concluded by the Afghans that he must have great influence with the powerful invaders. The British troops were sweeping through Afghanistan, and tidings of their wonderful marches and signal victories reached the Eagle's Nest. Even when our warriors vacated the land, they left their prestige behind. The Afghans of the fort had an impression that Walter would return, and should he find his friend Ali Khan defeated or deposed, would draw on them English vengeance. The iron hand of power which had twice reached Kabul itself, would easily crush a small tribe so near the British dominions. Thus, for a considerable time, his own character, his wife's influence, and the fear of Walter's anger made discontented Moslems submit to the control of a Christian chief.