All along the top was a row of
loopholes. At each corner a tall flanking tower enfiladed the
approaches. At the gate of this warlike residence some twenty or thirty
tribesmen were gathered, headed by the khan's own cousin, an elderly man
dressed in long white robes. All saluted us gravely. The escort closed
up. A troop trotted off to the right out of the line fire of the fort.
The advance scouts, passing round the walls, formed on the farther side.
These matters of detail complied with, conversation began. It was
conducted in Pushtu, and was naturally unintelligible to every one of
our party except the two political officers. Apparently Major Deane
reproached the two chiefs for their conduct. He accused them of having
seized the bridge across the Panjkora and delivered the passage to the
fanatic crowds that had gathered to attack the Malakand. This they
admitted readily enough. "Well, why not?" said they; "there was a good
fair fight." Now they would make peace. They bore no malice, why should
the Sirkar?
It was not, however, possible to accept this sportsmanlike view of the
situation.
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