‘Sergeant Hakeswill,’ Sharpe hissed. ‘Get the beast over on your side.’
‘Nothing I can do!’ Hakeswill protested, his face twitching. The tiger was watching Sharpe. It was only two feet away from him, its teeth were bared and its claws unsheathed, and there was a glint in its yellow eyes. ‘You want to fight a tiger, Sharpie,’ Hakeswill said, ‘that’s your business, not mine. Man doesn’t have to fight pussy cats, says so in the scriptures.’
‘You say that one more time,’ McCandless roared in sudden and unexpected fury, ‘and I’ll make sure you never wear stripes again! Do you understand me, man?’
Hakeswill was taken aback by the Colonel’s anger. ‘Sir,’ he said weakly.
‘So do as Private Sharpe says,’ Colonel McCandless ordered. ‘And do it now.’
Hakeswill beat his hands against the bars. The tiger turned its head and Sharpe immediately snatched the picklock back into the cell and stood again. The tiger leapt at Hakeswill,
shaking the bars of his cell with its violence, and Hakeswill backed hurriedly away.
‘Keep provoking it, man!’ McCandless ordered Hakeswill, and the Sergeant spat at the tiger, then threw a handful of straw towards its face.
Sharpe worked on the lock. He had the hook against the lever again. The tiger, roused to a petulant fury, stood with its paws against the bars of Hakeswill’s cell as Sharpe pressed on the lever and at last felt it move. His hands trembled and the hook grated as it slipped across the lever’s face, but he steadied himself and pressed harder. He was holding his breath, willing the lever to unlatch. Sweat stung his eyes, then suddenly the lever clicked across and the lock sprang open in his hands.
“That was the easy part,’ he said grimly. He folded the picklock and put it back in his pocket. ‘Mary!’ he called. There was no answer. ‘Mary!’ he shouted again, but still there was no reply. Kunwar Singh had pulled his men away from the cells and was now in a deep gateway on the courtyard’s far side, trapped between his wish to obey Appah Rao and the apparent impossibility of that obedience.
‘What do you need her for?’ Colonel McCandless asked.
‘I don’t even know if the bloody gun’s loaded, sir. I never asked her.’
‘Assume it is,’ McCandless said.
‘Easy for you, sir,’ Sharpe said respectfully, ‘being as you ain’t the one who’s got to go out and kill the beast.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Lawford offered.
Sharpe grinned. ‘It’s either you or me, sir,’ he said, ‘and being honest, sir, who do you think will do the best job?’
‘You,’ Lawford admitted.
‘Which is what I reckoned, sir. But one thing, sir. How do you shoot a tiger? In the head?’
‘Between the eyes,’ McCandless said, ‘but not too high up. Just below the eyes.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Sharpe said. He had eased the padlock out of its hasp and he could now move the door outwards, though he did it gingerly, unwilling to attract the tiger’s attention. He pulled the door shut again and stooped for his red jacket that lay on the straw. ‘Let’s hope the bugger’s a stupid pussy cat,’ he said, then he gently pushed the door open again. The hinges squealed alarmingly. He had the door in his left hand and his red coat was bundled in his right. When the door was open a foot he tossed the coat as hard as he could towards the remains of the goat at the corridor’s farther end.
The tiger saw the motion, twisted away from Hakeswill’s cage and sprang towards the coat. The red jacket had flown the best part of twenty feet and the tiger covered the distance in one powerful leap. It batted the coat with its claws, then batted it again, but found no flesh and blood inside the cloth.
Sharpe had slipped through the door, turned to the steps and snatched up the pistol. He turned back, hoping to regain the safety of the cell before the tiger noticed him, but his foot slipped on the lowest step and he fell backwards against the stone stairs. The tiger heard him, turned and went still. The yellow eyes stared at Sharpe, Sharpe gazed back, then slowly thumbed the cock of the pistol. The tiger heard the click and its tail lashed once. The merciless eyes watched Sharpe, then, very slowly, the tiger crouched. Its tail swung back and forth once more.