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

by G. A. Henty

"Are you awake, Hassan?"

"I am awake," he replied, "but am bound down hand and foot."

They cleared the snow off until they saw a foot. Taking hold of this together they pulled and gradually drew one of the men out. The other three were extricated more easily. They found that these had not suffered so much from a sense of suffocation as the first party had done, as, the ends of the roll being open, a certain amount of air had found its way through the snow. Half an hour's hard work sufficed to rescue the occupants of the other tent. The three were unconscious, but the cold blast speedily brought them round.

"What is to be done next?" Angus asked Hassan.

"The gale is still far too severe for us to move," the latter answered. "We had best clear away the snow over the tents, and then take to them again."

After two hours' work the tents were cleared. The men had worked from above, throwing out the snow over the sides of the mound, so that when they had finished the tents lay at the bottoms of sloping holes. A meal was then eaten, and lifting the upper covering of felt they lay down again and closed it over them. The sun was in the east, and they knew that some fifteen hours had elapsed since the gale had struck them. A mound of snow had marked where the horses were lying. They did not interfere with these, for Hassan said that the horses would be able to breathe through the snow, and probably the heat of their bodies had melted it immediately round them, and they would be much warmer than if the snow were cleared off. Before turning in Hassan and his men managed to erect the tent of their leaders. Lying as it did in a crater of snow, it was sheltered from the force of the wind. Holes were made with a dagger on each side of the slit that Angus had cut, and the edges tied together by a strip of leather. A couple of lamps and oil were taken from the sack in which they were carried, and also the bag of corn, and the little party after filling their vessels with snow and hanging them over the lamps, and closing the entrance to the tent, soon felt comfortable again.

"It has been a narrow escape," Sadut said. "Had it not been for your thinking of cutting the tent, and so enabling us to make our way out, the whole caravan would assuredly have perished. Now, we have only an imprisonment for another day or two at most, and can then proceed on our journey."

The next morning the gale had ceased, though the snow continued to fall. By mid-day the sky cleared, and all issuing out from their shelters prepared for a start. It took them an hour's work to extricate the horses; one of these, a weakly animal, had died, the others appeared uninjured by their imprisonment. All the vessels in the camp had been used for melting snow, and a drink of warm water with some flour stirred into it was given to each of the animals, and an extra feed of corn. As soon as they had eaten this, the baggage was packed on their backs, and the party moved forward. It was heavy work. The snow that had fallen since the force of the wind had abated was soft, and the animals sank fetlock-deep in it. But after three hours' travelling, they reached the end of the pass and began to descend. Two hours later they halted at a spot where a wall of rock afforded shelter against the wind from the north.

"Allah be praised that we have reached this point!" Hassan said. "Now the worst is over. I can see that we shall have another storm before an hour is past, they generally follow each other when they once begin. But here we are safe, and it was for this that I said 'No' when you proposed that we should halt at the mouth of the pass."

The tents were soon erected, great stones being placed on the lower edge to steady them against the gusts of wind. Then a diligent search was made for wood, and enough bushes were found to make a good fire. Strips of meat from one of the frozen sheep were cooked, the kettles were boiled, cakes of flour and ghee were baked, and the travellers made a hearty meal. The horses were each given half a bucket of warm water, thickened with flour, and a double feed of grain. Then all sat round the fire smoking and talking until it burned low, when, in spite of their sheep-skin coats, the bitter cold soon made itself felt. They had scarcely turned into their tents when the storm, as Hassan had predicted, burst. Except for an occasional gust they felt it but little, and slept soundly until morning, when they found that light snow had eddied down, and was lying two feet deep. The day was spent in cooking and attending to their own wants and those of the horses.