The courier, after giving us this information, remarked that he
was penniless, and that as his business concerned the safety of a
countryman, he hoped we would assist him. Though we were not quite
satisfied with the man's story, we stood the chance of its being true,
and furnished him with funds for the prosecution of his journey,
for which, on our return to Cabul, we were kindly thanked by Sir
Alexander, who informed us that the note from the Vakeel conveyed the
intelligence of the failure of his endeavours, and that he had himself
been put in confinement.

At the time of which I am writing both Dost Mahommed Kh[=a]n and his
notorious son Akbar were prisoners at Bokhara; but the means taken
by _their_ friends to release them were more successful than those
adopted by our politicals at Cabul. It appears that the chief at Shere
Subz had for some time been at enmity with his Bokhara neighbour, and,
wishing to do Dost Mahommed a good turn, he picked out fifty of the
most expert thieves in his dominions--a difficult selection where the
claims of all to this bad preeminence were so strong--but the Shere
Subz chief was from experience a tolerable judge of the qualifications
of an expert rogue, and having pitched upon his men, he promised them
valuable presents, provided they effected, by whatever means they
might choose to adopt, the release of the Dost; hinting at the same
time that if they failed he should be under the necessity of seizing
and selling their families. The thieves were successful, and at the
expiration of a month the Dost was free.

If we could have interested the chief of Shere Subz in our favour by
presents and fair words, might not the same means have been employed
for the rescue of poor Stoddart? The only way to deal with a ruffian
like him of Bokhara would have been by pitting against him some of his