The Far Pavilions - Mary Margaret Kaye [558]
Ash did not reply, and after a brief pause Wally said: ‘Somehow I always thought that when it came down to brass tacks, you'd choose us. I didn't dream… Ah well, there it is; no use talking about it. We shall never agree as long as you apparently have adopted the Afghan view of this business, while I can't avoid seeing it from ours.’
‘By which you mean Cavagnari's and Lytton's, and all that lot,’ said Ash with something of a snap.
Wally gave a small shrug. ‘If you like.’
‘I don't. But how do you yourself see it, Wally?’
‘Me? Faith, I should have thought that was obvious. I may not know these people like you do – the tribesmen I mean – but I do know that they despise weakness, as you yourself have just pointed out! Well then, whatever your views are as to the rights and wrongs of it, we went to war with them and we won. We defeated them. We made their Amir come to Gandamak to discuss peace terms and sign a treaty with us, and the most important of those terms was that we should be allowed to establish a British Mission in Kabul. Now I'm not going to argue the pros and cons with you, because, praise be, I'm not a politician, but if we back down now, they'll think us a backboneless lot who haven't even the guts to insist on our rights as victors, and despise us accordingly – which you of all people must know is true. We should earn neither friendship nor respect, but only scorn, and even the men of our own Corps would despise us for it and begin to wonder if we'd lost our nerve. Ask Zarin and Awal Shah, or Kamar Din or any of them, what they think, and see what they say. It'll surprise you.’
‘No it wouldn't,’ said Ash tiredly. ‘They'll think the same as you. It's all this fatuous business of “saving face”. We all suffer from that: and pay for it – in blood. We daren't risk “losing face” even if it means throwing justice and reason and common-sense to the winds, and doing something that we know is not only foolhardy, but appallingly dangerous: and in this case, completely unnecessary.’
Wally heaved a resigned sigh and said with a grin: ‘ “It isn't fair”, in fact. God be helping us if he isn't at it again! It's no good, Ash: it's wasting your time you are.’
‘I suppose so,’ admitted Ash ruefully. ‘But as Wigram once said, “One has to try”. Let's hope the Commandant can be brought to see how serious the situation is, and try his hand at persuading Cavagnari and his Forward Policy cronies to have second thoughts on the subject of this Mission. Though I admit I haven't a spark of confidence in our Simla-based decision-makers. Or in Homo-sapiens in general, if it comes to that!’
Wally laughed, and for the first time that night looked as he had done in the old days in Rawalpindi: young and gay and carefree. ‘Wisha, but it's a gloomy devil you are an' all, an' all. ‘Tis ashamed of you I am. Ah, come now, Ash, don't be such a Jeremiah. We really aren't such a hopeless lot as you make out. I know you didn't see eye to eye with Cavagnari, but for all that I'll lay you any odds you like that he brings the Afghans round his thumb and has them eating out of his hand inside a month of our arrival in Kabul. He'll win them over just as Sir Henry Lawrence won over the defeated Sikhs in the days before the Mutiny – you'll see.’
‘Yes… Yes, I shall see,’ said Ash slowly.
‘Of course – I forgot you'd be in Kabul yourself. When do you go back?’
‘As soon as I've seen the Old Man, which I hope will be sometime tomorrow. There's no point in my staying here any longer, is there?’
‘If you mean you won't be able to persuade me into turning down command of the Escort if I have the luck to be offered it, no there isn't.’
‘When do you think