Sharpe's Fortress Part 68

"We ain't got no business here, sir," he had said, 'not in heathen land. It belongs to the blackamoors, don't it? And there ain't nothing here for a redcoat."

Dodd had not believed a word of it. He suspected Hakeswill had fled the British army to avoid trouble, but he could hardly blame the Sergeant for that. Dodd himself had done the same, and Dodd did not care about Hakeswill's motives, only that the Sergeant was willing to fight. And Dodd believed his men fought better when white men gave them orders.

"There's a steadiness about the English, Sergeant," he had told Hakeswill, 'and it gives the natives bottom."

"It gives them what, sir?" Hakeswill had asked.

Dodd had frowned at the Sergeant's obtuseness.

"You ain't Scotch, are you?"

"Christ no, sir! I ain't a bleeding Scotchman, nor a Welshman.

English, sir, I am, through and through, sir." His face twitched.

"English, sir, and proud of it."

So Dodd had given Hakeswill a white jacket and a black sash, then put him in charge of a company of his Cobras.

"Fight well for me here, Sergeant," he told Hakeswill when the two men reached the top of the rampart, 'and I'll make you an officer."

"I shall fight, sir, never you mind, sir. Fight like a demon, I will."

And Dodd believed him, for if Hakeswill did not fight then he risked being captured by the British, and G.o.d alone knew what trouble he would then face. Though in truth Dodd did not see how the British could penetrate the Inner Fort. He expected them to take the Outer Fort, for there they had a flat approach and their guns were already blasting down the breaches, but they would have a far greater problem in capturing the Inner Fort. He showed that problem now to Hakeswill.

"There's only one way in, Sergeant, and that's through this gate. They can't a.s.sault the walls, because the slope of the ravine is too steep. See?"

Hakeswill looked to his left and saw that the wall of the Inner Fort was built on an almost sheer slope. No man could climb that and hope to a.s.sail a wall, even a breached wall, which meant that Dodd was right and the attackers would have to try -and batter down the four gates that barred the entranceway, and those gates were defended by Dodd's Cobras.

"And my men have never known defeat, Sergeant," Dodd said.

"They've watched other men beaten, but they've not been outfought themselves. And here the enemy will have to beat us. Have to! But they can't. They can't." He fell silent, his clenched fists resting on the fire step

The sound of the guns was constant, but the only sign of the bombardment was the misting smoke that hung over the far side of the Outer Fort. Manu Bappoo, who commanded there, was now hurrying back towards the Inner Fort and Dodd watched the Prince climb the steep path to the gates. The hinges squealed as, one after the other, the gates were opened to let Bappoo and his aides in. Dodd smiled as the last gate was unbarred.

"Let's go and make some mischief," he said, turning back to the steps.

Manu Bappoo had already opened the letter that Gopal had given to him. He looked up as Dodd approached.

"Read it," he said simply, thrusting the folded paper towards the Colonel.

"He wants to surrender?" Dodd asked, taking the letter.

"Just read it," Bappoo said grimly.

The letter was clumsily written, but intelligible. Beny Singh, as Killa-dar of the Rajah of Berar's fortress of Gawilghur, was offering to yield the fort to the British on the sole condition that the lives of all the garrison and their dependants were spared. None was to be hurt, none was to be imprisoned. The British were welcome to confiscate all the weaponry in the fort, but they were to allow Gawilghur's inhabitants to leave with such personal property as could be carried away on foot or horseback.

"Of course the British will accept!" Manu Bappoo said.

"They don't want to die in the breaches!"

"Has Beny Singh the authority to send this?" Dodd asked.

Bappoo shrugged, "He's Killadar."

"You're the general of the army. And the Rajah's brother."

Bappoo stared up at the sky between the high walls of the entranceway.

"One can never tell with my brother," he said.

"Maybe he wants to surrender? But he hasn't told me. Maybe, if we lose, he can blame me, saying he always wanted to yield."

"But you won't yield?"

"We can win here!" Bappoo said fiercely, then turned towards the palace as Gopal announced that the Killadar himself was approaching.

Beny Singh must have been watching his messenger's progress from the palace, for now he hurried down the path and behind him came his wives, concubines and daughters. Bappoo walked towards him, followed by Dodd and a score of his white-coated soldiers. The Killadar must have reckoned that the sight of the women would soften Bappoo's heart, but the Prince's face just became harder.

"If you want to surrender," he shouted at Beny Singh, 'then talk to me first!"

"I have authority here," Beny Singh squeaked. His little lap dog was in his arms, its small tongue hanging out as it panted in the heat.

"You have nothing!" Bappoo retorted. The women, pretty in their silk and cotton, huddled together as the two men met beside the snake pit.

"The British are making their breaches," Beny Singh protested, 'and tomorrow or the day after they'll come through! We shall all be killed!"

He wailed the prophecy.

"My daughters will be their playthings and my wives their servants." The women shuddered.

"The British will die in the breaches," Bappoo retorted.

"They cannot be stopped!" Beny Singh insisted.

"They are djinns."

Bappoo suddenly shoved Beny Singh back towards the rock pit where the snakes were kept. The Killadar cried aloud as he tripped and fell backwards, but Bappoo had kept hold of Beny Singh's yellow silk robe and now he held on tight so that the Killadar did not fall.

Hakeswill sidled to the pit's edge and saw the monkey bones. Then he saw a curving, nickering shape slither across the pit's shadowed floor and he quickly stepped back.

Beny Singh whimpered.

"I am the Killadar! I am trying to save lives!"

"You're supposed to be a soldier," Bappoo said in his hissing voice, 'and your job is to kill my brother's enemies." The women screamed, expecting to see their man fall to the pit's floor, but Manu Bappoo kept a firm grip on the silk.

"And when the British die in the breaches," he said to Beny Singh, 'and when their survivors are harried south across the plain, who do you think will get the credit for the victory? The Killadar of the fort, that is who! And you would throw that glory away?"