directed his wife to go to Bannu with her children and
place herself under my protection, and one autumn morning she arrived,
with three children. Before she had been with us many days, however,
others of her tribe came and warned her that if she stopped with us
she would lose her religion, sell herself to the Evil One, and be
lost for ever, and they accompanied these admonitions with threats, so
that ultimately she left us, and we have not seen her since. But who
knows? Sometimes after the lapse of years these people return to us,
and the thread of circumstance is picked up again where it had been
cut, as though there had never been any breach of continuity at all! Or
it may be the seed goes on growing in some distant Afghan village
unknown to us, but known to and tenderly cared for by Him who will not
let even a sparrow fall to the ground without His will, and who has
counted among His own many a one now resting in a Muhammadan graveyard
against that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed.

CHAPTER XXI

FRONTIER CAMPAIGNING

The Pathan warrior--A Christian native officer--A secret
mission--A victim of treachery--A soldier convert--Influence
of a Christian officer--Crude ideas and strange motives of
Pathan soldiers--Camaraderie in frontier regiments--Example
of sympathy between students of different religions in mission
school--A famous Sikh regiment--Sikh soldiers and religion--Fort
Lockhart--Saraghari--The last man--A rifle thief--Caught
red-handed.

Some of the finest fighting material of the Indian Army comes from
the Pathan tribes, both on the British side of the border and across
it in Tirah and Waziristan, and very pleasant fellows some of these
Pathan warriors are. Often when wandering about the frontier have I
received the hospitality of some outpost or stayed with the native
officer in some blockhouse, and listened to them recounting tales
of active service or of their mountain homes. Many of these native
officers are old students of the frontier mission schools, and these
extend a doubly hearty welcome. Some are serious religious inquirers,
and, from having travelled and mixed with all kinds of men, are able
to examine the claims of Christianity with less prejudice than the
priestly class.

A notable instance is that of Delawar Khan, who was a Subadar of
the famed Corps of Guides. He was at one time a notorious robber
on the Peshawur frontier,