Such a situation naturally requires very careful handling. It is of
course absolutely necessary to maintain the great principle, that a
soldier is bound hand and foot and in all honour to the service of his
Sovereign, and that no family or private ties must stand between him
and any duty that service may call on him to perform. On the other hand,
without relinquishing this principle, it is often possible, by a little
tactful and unostentatious redistribution of troops, to avoid placing a
soldier in so unenviable a position as taking part in an attack on his
own home. Sometimes, however, this is impossible, as in the story here
related.
The Guides were daily expecting orders to advance into the Khyber Pass
at the head of an army, and would thus at the very outset be fighting
against some of the men's own relations and friends. Amongst these men
was a young Afridi soldier, who was sore puzzled what to do. His own
village lay right in the path of the army, and only a few miles distant;
his relations and friends came daily to visit him, urging him to take
his discharge and return to his own people before the war began. Was
anyone ever in a more awkward position?
On the very eve of the advance he made his decision to stand by the
colours, and gave a final refusal to his relations. Yet even then
opportunity, combined with the ties of kinship, was too much for him. It
was his turn for sentry-go that night, all double sentries, and, as is
the custom, no two men of the same class together.
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