Here there was a flattish bit of maidan for about fifty yards before the path ascended, and crossed the face of slope and cliff.

On Saturday afternoons and holidays these clubhouses are surrounded by gayly dressed people enjoying an outing, and at all times groups of natives may be seen scattered from one end of the Maidan to the other, sleeping, visiting, and usually resting in the full glare of the fierce sun.

Colonel Kelly, however, was not to be caught in this way, so the advance guard was ordered to go right through this part of the road till they reached the maidan on the farther side, to hold that, and send back word that they had done so, the main body halting in the meantime till a clear road was announced.

In front stretched the great grass plain of the Maidan with its big trees and the wide carriage-road bisecting it.