"The bleeding pack he carries, which he shouldn"t, being an officer, which he ain"t. Where"s his pack?"
The privates shrugged. Sajit frowned.
"He had no pack when he came to the Captain"s house."
"You"re sure?"
"He came on a horse," Lowry said helpfully.
"It were a grey horse, and he didn"t have no pack."
"So where"s the horse?" Hakeswill demanded angrily.
"We should look in its saddlebags!"
Lowry frowned, trying to remember.
"A bleeding kid had it," he said at last.
"So where"s the kid?"
"He ran off," Sajit said.
"Ran off?" Hakeswill said threateningly.
"Why?"
"He saw you hit him," Sajit said.
"I saw it. He fell out of the tent.
There was blood on his face."
"You shouldn"t have hit him till he was right inside the tent," Kendrick said chidingly.
"45.
"Shut your b.l.o.o.d.y face," Hakeswill said, then frowned.
"So where did the kid run?"
"Away," Sajit said.
"I chased him, but he climbed onto the horse."
"Kid don"t speak English," Kendrick said helpfully.
"How the h.e.l.l do you know that?"
"Cos I talked to him!"
"And who"s going to believe a heathen black kid what don"t speak English?" Lowry asked.
Hakeswill"s face was racked by a quick series of twitches. He suspected he was safe. Lowry was right. Who would believe the kid?
Even so the Sergeant wished that Jama"s men were coming earlier to fetch Sharpe. Jama himself had gone away from the camp, reckoning that if he was going to murder a British officer then it was best done a long way from the British army. Hakeswill had warned Jama not to expect Sharpe until the evening, and now he had to guard him until dusk.
"I told you to put a bandage on his eyes," Hakeswill snapped.
"Don"t want him to see us!"
"It don"t matter if he does," Kendrick said.
"He ain"t going to see the dawn, is he?"
"Got more lives than a basketful of bleeding cats, that one," Hakeswill said.
"If I had any sense I"d slit his throat now."
"No!" Sajit said.
"He was promised to my uncle."
"And your uncle"s paying us, yes?"
"That too is agreed," Sajit said.
Hakeswill stood and walked to Sharpe"s unconscious body.
"I put those stripes on his back," he said proudly.
"Lied through my teeth, I did, and had Sharpie flogged. Now I"ll have him killed." He remembered how Sharpe had flung him among the tigers and his face twitched as he recalled the elephant trying to crush him to death, and in his sudden rage he kicked at Sharpe and went on kicking until Kendrick hauled him away.
"If you kill him, Sarge," Kendrick said, "then the blackies won"t pay us, will they?"
Hakeswill let himself be pulled away.
"So how will your uncle kill him?" he asked Sajit.
"His jet tis will do it."
"I"ve seen them b.a.s.t.a.r.ds at work," Hakeswill said in a tone of admiration.
"Just make it slow. Make it slow and make it bleeding painful."
"It will be slow," Sajit promised, "and very painful. My uncle is not a merciful man."
"But I am," Hakeswill said.