To Herat and Cabul: A Story of the First Afghan War

by G. A. Henty

"Put them in your own pocket, Azim. I do not want to have anything to do with them; they are your spoil."

Azim, who had no compunction in the matter, at once put the little bag into his sash. The rope was now fastened to the battlement, and they slid down. The wall was about forty feet high, and unprovided with a moat. They started at once for the place where the horses were to be waiting for them; a quarter of an hour's brisk walk took them there. Angus made a present to the man in charge of them, who, while they were tightening the girths, at once wrapped himself in the blanket he had brought out and lay down to sleep till morning.

AZIM SURPRISES THE SPY.

"We need not press the horses," Angus said as they rode off. "We shall certainly have twelve hours' start, and I hope twenty-four. It all depends on how often the man reports to his employer, who is no doubt an official at the palace. Probably he goes once a day, though, as there has been nothing suspicious about our movements and no signs of any intention of leaving, he may have been ordered to go only every two or three days unless he has news to give. Of course in that case we are all right; but if he reports every evening, how long a start we shall get depends entirely upon what sort of a man the official is. In any case, he would hardly give a thought to his spy not coming in this evening, but would suppose that I had been out till late. When he does not appear in the morning, if the official is of a suspicious nature he will enquire for the man, and when he is not found will send down to the khan to see if he is there, and to ascertain if things are going on as usual.

"When the news is brought him that the man is not there, and that we have been out all night, he will become alarmed. He will go himself and question the traders there, and will doubtless ascertain that I have sold our horses. I don't suppose he will hear that we have bought others. The trader will see that there is going to be trouble about it, and is likely to hold his tongue and tell his servant to be silent on the subject; and as the official could have no reason for imagining that we should sell our horses and buy others, he will conclude that we have made our escape over the wall on foot. That is the report which he will probably make to the Prince, and we may safely calculate that it will be afternoon before parties of horse are sent off in pursuit by the Herat, Ghuznee, and Quettah roads, and will probably be instructed to enquire for two young Persians on foot. They will lose time by stopping at every village to make enquiries, and after going forty or fifty miles will begin to feel sure that we have not come along that road, but have gone by one of the others, or perhaps hidden up in some village at a distance from the road.

"They may have instructions to go as far as Quettah; but suppose they get thirty miles before sunset—and they certainly won't get farther than that, as they will have to make enquiries, and will probably halt as soon as it gets dark,—we shall have a start of nearly sixty miles before morning, and will hide up and go on as soon as it is dark, and shall be another thirty or forty before they start next day; so we shall then be some sixty miles ahead of them and within from twenty to thirty from Quettah. We will skirt round the town without going into it, and then make down the Bolan Pass. I don't think there is the least chance of any pursuit being kept up beyond Quettah, and we can travel at our own pace down the pass. We shall have to lay in a good stock of provisions at the last village we pass before beginning to descend, and must travel at night, for otherwise we may be plundered by the tribesmen, who have the worst possible reputation."

"How long is the pass, master?"

"Fifty-five miles long, Mr. Pottinger told me. He says that it is a frightful place. A river runs through it, and in the wet season anyone caught in it would be drowned, for in some places the sides are perpendicular, and the channel is only sixty or seventy feet wide. There are caves along there in which the tribesmen hide, and rush out and plunder, and often kill, travellers. We must get through in two nights, and must be extremely careful where we stop for the day, choosing some place where we can hide ourselves and our horses."