losing game; and Akbar returned to Kábul only to cover his father's flight into the wilds of the Hindu Kush.
Shortly after the fall of Ghazní the Nawáb Jabar Khán had ridden over to Sháh Shujá's camp with overtures of a peaceful tenour from his brother Dost Muhammad. The Sháh replied by offering his dreaded rival 'an honourable asylum' in British India. Jabar Khán treated the suggestion with honest scorn. 'His brother had no desire to lose his freedom and become a pensioner on British bounty.' Turning to Macnaghten, he asked him why the English were helping Sháh Shujá with arms and money, if he were indeed the rightful king of the country: 'Leave him now with us Afgháns, and let him rule us if he can.'
On the 30th of July Keane resumed his march upon Kábul, some ninety miles eastward of Ghazní. Four days later it was known in camp that Dost Muhammad, with a few followers, had fled from Arghandí towards Pámián. So long as he remained at large, his enemies could not breathe freely. A few hundred picked horsemen, led by the dashing James Outram and ten other English officers, were sent off at once in hot pursuit of their noble quarry. With them also marched a small body of Afghán horse commanded by Hájjí Khán Khákar, who was to act as guide. This man had been one of the first to desert the Amír and pay his homage to Sháh Shujá at Kandahár. The Sháh had given him a rich jághír and a post of high honour in the State. But the Hájjí
