He waited the best part of a morning while the army readied itself to leave Ahmednuggur. Guns were being attached to limbers, oxen harnessed to carts and tents being struck by lascars. The fortress of Ahmednuggur, fearing the same fate as the city, had meekly surrendered after a few cannon shots and, with both the city and its fort safe in his hands, Wellesley was now planning to march north, cross the Godavery and seek out the enemy army. Sergeant Hakeswill had no great wish to take part in that adventure, but he could see no other way of catching up with Sharpe and so he was resigned to his fate.
“Sergeant Hakeswill?” An aide came from the General’s big tent.
“Sir!” Hakeswill scrambled to his feet and stiffened to attention.
“Sir Arthur will see you now, Sergeant.”
Hakeswill marched into the tent, snatched off his shako, turned smartly to the left, quick-marched three short paces, then slammed to a halt in front of the camp table where the General was doing paperwork.
Hakeswill stood quivering at attention. His face shuddered.
“At ease, Sergeant,” Wellesley, bare-headed, had barely glanced up from his papers as the Sergeant entered.
“Sir!” Hakeswill allowed his muscles to relax slightly.
“Papers for you, sir!” He pulled the warrant for Sharpe’s arrest from his pouch and offered it to the General.
Wellesley made no move to accept the warrant. Instead he leaned back in his chair and examined Hakeswill as though he had never seen the Sergeant before. Hakeswill stood rigid, his eyes staring at the tent’s brown wall above the General’s head. Wellesley sighed and leaned forward again, still ignoring the warrant.
“Just tell me, Sergeant,” he said, his attention already returned to the documents on his desk. An aide was taking whatever sheets the General signed, sprinkling sand on the signatures, then placing more papers on the table.
“I’m ordered here by Lieutenant Colonel Gore, sir. To apprehend Sergeant Sharpe, sir.”
Wellesley looked up again and Hakeswill almost quailed before the cold eyes. He sensed that Wellesley could see right through him, and the sensation made his face quiver in a series of uncontrollable twitches.
Wellesley waited for the spasms to end.
“On your own, are you, Sergeant?” the General asked casually.
“Detail of six men, sir.”
“Seven of you! To arrest one man?”
“Dangerous man, sir. I’m ordered to take him back to Hurryhur, sir, so he can “Spare me the details,” Wellesley said, looking back to the next paper needing his signature. He tallied up a list of figures.
“Since when did four twelves and eighteen yield a sum of sixty-eight?” he asked no one in particular, then corrected the calculation before signing the paper.
“And since when did Captain Lampert dispose of the artillery train?”
The aide wielding the sand-sprinkler blushed.
“Colonel Eldredge, sir, is indisposed.” Drunk, if the truth was known, which it was, but it was impolitic to say that a colonel was drunk in front of a sergeant.
“Then invite Captain Lampert to supper. We must feed him some arithmetic along with a measure of common sense,” Sir Arthur said. He signed another paper, then rested his pen on a small silver stand before leaning back and looking at Hakeswill. He resented the Sergeant’s presence, not because he disliked Sergeant Hakeswill, though he did, but rather because Wellesley had long ago left behind the cares of being the commander of the 33rd and he did not want to be reminded of those duties now. Nor did he want to be in a position to approve or disapprove of his successor’s orders for that would be an impertinence.
“Sergeant Sharpe is not here,” he said coldly.
“So I hear, sir. But he was, sir?”
“Nor am I the person you should be troubling with this matter, Sergeant,” Wellesley went on, ignoring Hakeswill’s question. He took up the pen again, dipped it in ink, and crossed a name from a list before adding his signature.
“In a few days,” he continued, “Colonel McCandless will return to the army and you will report to him with your warrant and I’ve no doubt he will give the matter its due attention.
Till then I shall employ you usefully. I won’t have seven men idling while the rest of the army works.” Wellesley turned to the aide.