252 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



station! I have been shown an address on a piece of 

 paper while far from the beaten track in the eastern end 

 of the valley, and directed a befogged coolie to his 

 proper destination at Gulmerg, and a friend, hurriedly 

 ordered to join the Tochi Valley army, welcomed even- 

 tually his pony, sent off at the same time as himself, after 

 two months, during which time it and its " sais " had been 

 nearly all over the North- West frontier, in and out of 

 the fighting zone, having first gone to a place somewhat 

 akin in name but two hundred miles away from the scene 

 of action! Fortunately in India the old home rule, 

 ' 'Ere's a stranger, 'eave a brick at him," is reversed. 

 Out there we are all one vast white family, and one does 

 one's brother, or his ponies, or his chattels a good turn 

 whenever opportunity occurs, knowing that in all human 

 probability the day will not be far off when we shall 

 welcome a return in money or kind! Stranger, 

 G. T., griffin, whatever opprobrious title I had a right 

 to, I was made free of all the privileges of my caste from 

 the moment of arrival, and it will always be a matter 

 of regret to me that I had no power of " doing likewise." 



A few new books, a plentiful supply of papers, a 

 small power of musicking, and a slight fund of infor- 

 mation about the march of events " at home," was all 

 the slender return I could make for countless kindnesses, 

 boundless hospitality. Fortunately these trifles must 

 not be gauged by their intrinsic value, but considered 

 as they are in a country where literature and art, as we 

 understand them in England, are practically non- 

 existent for the white sojourner. 



Murree was reached early in the afternoon, and I 

 there renewed my acquaintance with that " darkest of 

 earth's dark places," an Indian hotel. In my pleasant 



