Dodd walked to the centre of the fire step and there climbed onto an embrasure so that he could talk to as many of his men as possible.
"You will see that I have shut the gates, " he shouted, 'and they will stay shut!
They will not be opened except by my express permission. Not if all the maharajahs of India stand out there and demand entrance! The gates stay shut. Do you understand?"
The white-coated soldiers, or at least those few who spoke some English, nodded while the rest had Dodd's orders translated. None showed much interest in the decision. They trusted their Colonel, and if he wanted the gates kept closed, then so be it.
Dodd watched the smoke thicken on the far side of the Outer Fort. A grim struggle was being waged there, but it was nothing to do with him.
He would only begin to fight when the British attacked across the ravine, but their attacks would achieve nothing. The only way into the Inner Fort was through the gates, and that was impossible. The British might batter down the first gate with cannon fire, but once through the arch they would discover that the entranceway turned sharply to the left, so their gun could not fire through the passage to batter down the three other doors. They would have to fight their way up the narrow passage, try to destroy the successive gates with axes, and all the while his men would be pouring slaughter on them from the flanking walls.
"Sahib?" Gopal called, and Dodd turned to see that the Jemadar was pointing up the path that led to the palace. Beny Singh had appeared on the path, flanked by a servant carrying a parasol to protect the Killadar from the hot sun.
"Send him up here, Jemadar! " Dodd shouted back.
Dodd felt a quiet exaltation at the neatness of his tactics. Manu Bappoo was already cut off from safety, and only Beny Singh was now left as a rival to Dodd's supremacy. Dodd was tempted to cut the Killadar down here and now, but the murder would have been witnessed by members of the garrison who were still loyal to Beny Singh, and so instead Dodd greeted the Killadar with a respectful bow.
"What's happening?" Beny Singh demanded. He was breathing hard from the effort of climbing to the fire step then he cried out in dismay because the guns on the southern wall of the Outer Fort, those guns that overlooked the ravine, had suddenly opened fire to pump gouts of grey white smoke.
"I fear, sahib, " Dodd said, 'that the enemy are overwhelming the fort."
"They're doing what?" The Killadar, who was dressed for battle in a clean white robe girdled by a red cummerbund and hung with a jewelled scabbard, looked horrified. He watched the smoke spread across the ravine. He was puzzled because it was not at all clear what the nearer guns were firing at.
"But the enemy can't get in here!»
"There are other British soldiers approaching, sahib, " Dodd said, and he pointed to the smoke cloud above the ravine. The guns on the near side of the Outer Fort, most of them small three- and five-pounder cannon, were aiming their pieces westwards, which meant that British troops must be approaching up the steep road which led from the plain.
Those troops were still out of Dodd's sight, but the gunnery from the Outer Fort was eloquent proof of their presence.
"There must be redcoats coming towards the ravine, " Dodd explained, 'and we never foresaw that the British might assault in more than one place." Dodd told the lie smoothly. "I have no doubt they have men coming up the southern road too."
"They do, " the Killadar confirmed.
Dodd shuddered, as though the news overwhelmed him with despair.
"We shall do our best, " he promised, 'but I cannot defend everything at once. I fear the British will gain the victory this day." He bowed to the Killadar again.
"I am so very sorry, sahib. But you can gain an immortal reputation by joining the fight. We might lose today's battle, but in years to come men will sing songs about the defiance of Beny Singh. And how better for a soldier to die, sahib, than with a sword in his hand and his enemies dead about his feet?"
Beny Singh blanched at the thought.
"My daughters! " he croaked.
«Alas,» Dodd said gravely, 'they will become soldiers' toys. But you should not worry, sahib. In my experience the prettiest girls usually find a soldier to defend them. He is usually a big man, crude and forceful, but he stops the other men from raping his woman, except his friends, of course, who will be allowed some liberties. I am sure your wives and daughters will find men eager to protect them."
Beny Singh fled from Dodd's reassurances. Dodd smiled as the
Killadar ran, then turned and walked towards Hakeswill who was posted in the bastion above the innermost gate. The Sergeant had been issued with a sword to accompany his black sash. He slammed to attention as Dodd approached him.
"Stand easy, Mister Hakeswill, " Dodd said. Hakeswill relaxed slightly. He liked being called "Mister', it somehow seemed appropriate. If that little bastard Sharpe could be a mister and wear a sword, then so could he.
"I shall have a job for you in a few minutes, Mister Hakeswill, " Dodd said.
"I shall be honoured, sir, " Hakeswill replied.
Dodd watched the Killadar hurry up the path towards the palace.
"Our honoured commander, " he said sarcastically, 'is taking some bad news to the palace. We must give the news time to take root there."
"Bad news, sir?"
"He thinks we're going to lose, " Dodd explained.
"I pray not, sir."
"As do I, Mister Hakeswill, as do I. Fervently! " Dodd turned to watch the gunners in the Outer Fort and he saw how puny their small cannon were and he reckoned that such fire would not hold up the redcoats for long. The British would be in the ravine in half an hour, maybe less.
"In ten minutes, Mister Hakeswill, you will lead your company to the palace and you will order the Arab guards to come and defend the walls."
Hakeswill's face twitched.
"Don't speak their heathen language, sir, begging your pardon, sir."
"You don't need their language. You've got a musket, use it. And if anyone questions your authority, Mister Hakeswill, you have my permission to shoot them."
"Shoot them, sir? Yes, sir. With pleasure, sir."
"Anyone at all, Mister Hakeswill."
Hakeswill's face twitched again.
"That fat little bugger, sir, him what was just here with the curly moustache..»
"The Killadar? If he questions you..»
"I shoot the bugger, sir."
"Exactly." Dodd smiled. He had seen into Hakeswill's soul and discovered it was black as filth, and perfect for his purposes.
"Do it for me, Mister Hakeswill, and I shall gazette you as a captain in the Cobras. Your havildar speaks some English, doesn't he?"
"A kind of English, sir, " Hakeswill said.
"Make sure he understands you. The palace guards are to be despatched to the walls."
"They will, sir, or else they'll be dead 'uns."
"Very good, " Dodd said.
"But wait ten minutes."
"I shall, sir. And good day to you, sir." Hakeswill saluted, about turned and marched down the ramparts.
Dodd turned back to the Outer Fort. Rockets seared out of the smoke cloud above which Manu Bappoo's flag still hung. Faintly, very faintly, Dodd could hear men shouting, but the sound was being drowned by the roar of the guns which unsettled the silver-grey monkeys in the ravine. The beasts turned puzzled black faces up towards the men on the Inner Fort's walls as though they could find an answer to the noise and stink that was consuming the day.