‘Yes, sir.’
‘Straight into the Tippoo’s loving arms.’ The Scotsman sat quietly for a moment, sometimes shivering because of his fever. He had wrapped himself in straw again, but he was still cold, despite the day’s intense damp heat. ‘And you couldn’t get a message out? No, I suppose not. Those things are never easy.’ He shook his head. ‘Let’s hope the Tippoo doesn’t finish his mine.’
‘It’s near finished, sir.’ Sharpe delivered yet more bad news. ‘I saw it.’
‘Aye, it would be. He’s an efficient man, the Tippoo,’ McCandless said, ‘efficient and clever. Cleverer than his father, and old Hyder Ali was canny enough. I never met him, but I think I’d have liked the old rogue. This son, now, I never met him either until I was captured, and I wish I hadn’t. He’s a good soldier but a bad enemy.’ McCandless closed his eyes momentarily as a shudder racked his body.
“What will he do with us?’ Lawford asked.
‘That I cannot say,’ Colonel McCandless replied. Tt depends, probably, on his dreams. He’s not as good a Muslim
as he’d like us to think, for he still believes in some older magic and he sets great store by his dreams. If his dreams tell him to kill us then doubtless we’ll have our heads turned back to front like the unfortunate gentlemen who shared these cells with me until quite recently. You heard about them?’
‘We heard,’ Lawford said.
‘Murdered to amuse the Tippoo’s troops!’ McCandless said disapprovingly. ‘And there were some good Christian men among them too. Only that thing over there survived.’ He jerked his head towards HakeswilTs cell.
‘He survived, sir,’ Sharpe said vengefully, ‘because he betrayed us.’
‘It’s a lie, sir!’ Hakeswill, who had been avidly listening to Sharpe and Lawford’s tale, snapped indignantly from across the corridor. ‘A filthy lie, sir, as I’d expect from a gutter soldier like Private Sharpe.’
McCandless turned to gaze at the Sergeant. ‘Then why were you spared?’ he asked coldly.
‘Touched by God, sir. Always have been, sir. Can’t be killed, sir.’
‘Mad,’ McCandless said quietly.
‘You can be killed, Obadiah,’ Sharpe said. ‘Christ, if it wasn’t for you, you bastard, I’d have taken our news to General Harris.’
‘Lies, sir! More lies,’ Hakeswill insisted.
‘Quiet, both of you,’ McCandless said. ‘And Private Sharpe?’
‘Sir?’
‘I’d be grateful if you did not blaspheme. Remember that “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus twenty, verse seven.’
‘Amen, sir,’ Hakeswill called, ‘and praise the Lord, sir.’
‘Sorry, sir,’ Sharpe muttered.
‘You do know your Ten Commandments, don’t you, Sharpe?’ McCandless asked.
‘No, sir.’
‘Not one of them?’ McCandless asked, shocked.
‘Thou shalt not be found out, sir? Is that one of them?’ Sharpe asked guilelessly.
McCandless stared at him in horror. ‘Do you have any religion, Sharpe?’
‘No, sir. Never found a need for it.’
‘You were born with a hunger for it, man.’ The Colonel spoke with some of his old energy.
‘And for a few things else, sir.’
McCandless shivered under his mantle of straw. ‘If God spares me, Sharpe, I may attempt to repair some of die damage to your immortal soul. Do you still have the Bible your mother gave you, Willie?’
‘They took it from me, sir,’ Lawford said. ‘But I did manage to save one page.’ He took the single page from his trouser pocket. He was blushing, for both he and Sharpe knew why the page had been torn from the holy book, and it was not for any purpose that Colonel McCandless would have approved. ‘Just the one page, sir,’ Lawford said apologetically.
‘Give it here, man,’ McCandless said fiercely, ‘and let us see what the good Lord has to say to us.’ He took the crumpled page, smoothed it and tipped it to the light. ‘Ah! The Revelation!’ He seemed pleased. ‘”Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,”‘ he read aloud. ‘Amen to that.’
‘Not very cheerful, sir,’ Sharpe ventured.
‘It is the most cheerful thing I can contemplate in this place, Private. A promise from the Lord God Almighty Himself that when I die I shall be carried into His glory.’ The Colonel smiled for that consolation. ‘Might I assume, Private, that you cannot read?’