“We’ll go after them, by God,” Burrows decided. “We can’t let the deserters hand our guns to Ayub Khan.” He shook his head. “They’ll have Martini-Henry rifles as well as artillery. Imagine them in the hands of the Pashtun tribes.”
“They have Sniders, sir, and Enfields,” St John said. “We have a policy, ever since the Mutiny, not to arm the sepoys or our Afghan allies with our most modern weapons.”
Burrows grunted, unhappy to be corrected. “All the same. I’ll take the cavalry, horse artillery and four companies of the 66th and sepoys. Who leads the mutineers?”
“Mahomed Aslam Khan,” St John replied at once. “He’s an experienced man, sir, and no fool.”
Jack grunted. “These Afghans are a formidable people. I don’t know Mahomed Aslam. Is Ayub also a decent soldier?”
St John nodded. “I’d sa
