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The Afridis value courage above all things, and were filled with admiration at the manner in which this young officer sacrificed himself for his superior. He signalled to Lisle to accompany him and, surrounded by the tribesmen, he was taken back to the rock from which they had first fired. Then, guarded by four armed men, he was conducted to a little village standing high among the hills.
I am a friend." "Come on, friend, and let us have a look at you," the officer in charge of the picket answered. Rising, he ran forward. "Who on earth are you?" the officer asked when he came up. "You look like one of the Afridis, but your tongue is English." "I am Lieutenant Bullen," he said; and a burst of cheering rose from the men, who belonged to his own regiment.
This was the first time that the great defile twenty-eight miles in length had ever been forced by arms. Timur Lang and Nadir Shah, at the head of their enormous hosts, bought a safe passage through it from the Afridis. Akbar the Great, in 1587, is said to have lost forty thousand men in attempting to force it, and Aurangzeb failed to get through.
The path was across a low ridge connecting higher ones, and offered no great facilities for resistance, and was overcome with the exchange of a few shots, only. From the top of the Karanghur Pass was seen the valley of Maidan, the spot which the Afridis were wont to boast no infidel had ever gazed upon. The view was magnificent.
These two lines give us three tracts to be dealt with first, the tract inside the inner line, the settled districts of the North-West Frontier Province, inhabited for the most part by sturdy and somewhat turbulent Pathans; second, the tract between the two lines, that welter of mountains where dwell the hardy brigand hillmen: the tribes of the Black Mountain, of Swat and Bajur, the Mohmands, the Afridis, the Orakzais, the Wazirs, the Mahsuds, and a host of others, whose names from time to time become familiar according as the outrageousness of their misconduct necessitates military operations; third, the country beyond the outer line, "the God-granted kingdom of Afghanistan and its dependencies."
Two or three little mountain guns make all the difference in expeditions of this kind for, though the Afridis will stand musketry fire pluckily enough, they begin to flinch as soon as guns, however small, open upon them. "There is no more awkward business than an attack upon hill forts that are well held, for some of them are really formidable.
And he related the manner in which Lisle had won his V.C. "Why did you not tell me about it, Bullen? It was a splendid thing to do. You did tell me, I remember, how you got the V.C. by helping to get an officer out of the grasp of the Afridis, but you gave no details." "There was nothing to tell about it, Hallett. I only did what I am sure you would have done, in my case."
As I have recorded several instances of gallantry and conduct among the Afridis and Pathans in our ranks, it is only fitting that the reverse of the medal should be shown. The reader, who may be interested in the characters of the subject races of the Empire, and of the native soldiers, on whom so much depends, will perhaps pardon a somewhat long digression on the subject of Pathans and Sikhs.
News travels marvellously fast, in India; the Afridis always seem to know what is going on elsewhere, and I am pretty sure that they would be up, all over the country, if they had not had to give up the greater portion of their rifles, and had not more than enough to do to rebuild their houses. So we have something to be thankful for."
"When I lifted you up, sir, I certainly intended to get up behind you; but the Afridis were so close that I felt that it was impossible to do so, and that we should both be shot down before we got out of range; so I gave the horse a prod with my sword and, as I saw him go off at a gallop, I threw down my arms, as I told you."
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