When well on their way,
like a man-of-war at sea they opened their sealed orders, and learnt
that in the vicinity of Nowshera they would find a fleet of boats on the
Kabul River. Embarking on these they were to drop down that river, now
in flood, to its confluence with the Indus at Attock. Here the flotilla
was to be concealed while one or two intelligent men were sent ashore to
a place of tryst, whither Major R.B. Campbell, the Commanding Officer,
and the other officers on leave, had been ordered to arrive by a certain
hour. Then, complete in officers, the flotilla was to slip anchor again
and drop down the roaring flood of the Indus for another twenty-eight
miles to Shadipore, the local Gretna Green, to judge from its name. It
speaks highly for the skill with which the operation was planned, and
the exactitude with which it was executed, to record that it was carried
out without a hitch. The Guides by a seventy-eight mile circuit now
found themselves south-east, instead of north, of the objective, and the
enemy were consequently taken from a totally unexpected quarter.
Another of Cavignari's _coups_ may perhaps be given as illustrating not
only his policy of smiting hard, instead of palavering, but also the
necessity for strict secrecy. In 1878 when the Swat River Canal, which
has turned the desert plain of Yusufzai into one great wheat-field, was
under construction, the more pestilential class of mullah, always on the
look-out for a cause to inflame Mahomedan fanaticism against the English
unbeliever, stirred up the tribesmen to interfere with the work.
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