uties as Deputy Commissioner.

This new position was one fraught with considerable difficulties.
Bannu, which lay on the north-western frontier of the Punjaub, was
populated by a wild and lawless people. Waziris, Marwatis, and men of
other Afghan tribes, they had lived an open, free-booting life, raiding
far and wide at will, and were known as the most daring thieves and
bloodthirsty ruffians on the border. Under Taylor's wise but gentle
rule they had been kept within certain bounds, but much remained to be
done. They were now to learn from Nicholson the lesson which in time
transformed the province into the most orderly one in the whole Punjaub.

Truly could Herbert Edwardes, who had had no little experience of them,
say afterwards, "I only knocked down the walls of the Bannu forts; John
Nicholson has since reduced the _people_ to such a state of good order
and respect for the laws, that in the last year of his charge not only
was there no murder, burglary, or highway robbery, but not an _attempt_
at any of these crimes."

The new _hakim_ (or magistrate) quickly made his influence felt when he
arrived on the scene at Bannu. Up in the hills to the westward lived
the Umarzai Waziris, among the worst of the outlaws. The knowledge
that a fresh ruler had been appointed over them troubled them not a
whit, and they proceeded to swoop down on the villages in the plain for
the purpose of taking toll as aforetime. Nicholson acted promptly.
Placing himself at the head of 1500 mounted police, he carried war into
the enemy's country, penetrating the hill-fastnesses into which no one
else had yet dared to venture. To the surprise of the Umarzais, he
turned the tables completely upon them, and in a week or two he had
their headmen at his feet suing for pardon.

The moral of this swift retribution was not lost upon the other people
of the district. One and all came to agree that "Nikalseyn" was a man
to be feared, respected, and obeyed. His hand fell heavily and surely
on the wrong-doer within the limits of his jurisdiction, and he was a
bold Bannuchi indeed who dared to challenge his power. At the same
time that the new Deputy Commissioner was a stern dispenser of justice
he showed himself an impartial ruler. If he punished the lawless he
certainly protected the oppressed, irrespective of rank. Lies availed
little in the court over which he presided; sooner or later he would
get to the bottom of the matter, and the wro