'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎254] (293/360)

254 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
hurly-burly in the least, and I quite envied him his cool
ness in the midst of the wild excitement around him.
At our last camp at Sariab we were close to the railway
line at the entrance to the Bholan Pass, and Hashim and
Ali Agha evidently thinking that I had never seen such a
work of civilisation before, took the trouble to explain its
use to me, both of them being acquainted with the little
line at Tehran!
It was exciting to feel that we should be at Quetta and
in the midst of civilisation on the morrow, and I busied
myself in unpacking the clothes sent to me from home
the previous autumn, and which had travelled in boxes
stitched up in oilcloth. On April 30th we rode along a
metalled road into the cantonment, having a lively time
with our unsophisticated Persian horses, which persisted in
shying at every wall, regarding with especial suspicion the
ticca gharries as they rattled by, and almost refusing to pass
the perambulators which we encountered along the shady
roads planted with trees, before we turned down a drive
and were in front of the fine columned portico of the
Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , where Sir James Browne welcomed us with
genial hospitality. The luxuries of civilisation were indeed
a treat after our lengthy sojourn in the wilds, which had,
however, agreed so well with me that I had ridden from the
Caspian Sea to India without half an hour's illness at any
time of my journey.
On May 2nd, 1896, we left Quetta for Simla, and as our
friends saw us off at the station and we said good-bye to
our kindly host, we little thought that in a few weeks' time
he, a man whom India and British prestige could ill afford
to lose, would have passed away.
We had only been a few hours on our road when a station