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most honourably and requested Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan to go to the Southern Province, and to use his family influence in winning the tribes to his side. Another letter was sent through Sardar Ahmad Shah Khan to the Marshal and his brothers in France asking them to return to their motherland, promising them the highest positions that they cared to have. But even Sher Jan, clever as he was, could not foresee that though all the members of this noble family had been ill-treated by the ex-King they were in no way ready to throw in their lot with robbers and brigands, whose rule was a national disgrace and, if prolonged, would prove fatal to the existence of Afghanistan as a free country. Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan, who was on the look-out for an opportunity to serve his countrymen, was not slow to take advantage of this opportunity. He left Kabul with a few of his friends, and by way of Khushi and Dobandi, reached the Southern Province. He went from place to place holding Jirgahs and telling the people all about the Reign of Terror and the wretched 86