Hide and Seek for Love (3 page)

It would be dangerous, as David well knew, for the Officers to ride alone without an escort.

It was a regular joke that behind every stone on the North-West Frontier there was an enemy waiting to take a potshot at you.

Sadly it was true and David knew that the Officers, although they appeared at ease, were acutely conscious that at any moment a rifle might be fired at them.

To reach the path that led to the main gates of the Fort they would have to pass by him.

Slowly he rose to his feet.

Then, as the Officers rode towards him, he held out his hand.

“Help the poor, Sahib.  Help those who are hungry.  Help those who are ill.”

He was speaking exactly in the sing-song voice of an Indian beggar.

As the Officers were completely ignoring him, he ran beside their horses, calling out again and again,

“Help, Sahibs, please help and you will be blessed by Allah for your kindness.”

Those watching from the Fort had seen the Officers approaching and the gates swung open.

As the horsemen rode into the Fort, David followed closely behind them.

He was well inside before the Sergeant of the guard saw him.

“
You
,” he called out, “get out of 'ere!”

The Sergeant walked menacingly towards him.

As he reached him, David said in English,

“Take me immediately to your Colonel – ”

The Sergeant stared at him.

By this time the two Officers had rode on and were dismounting as two soldiers ran to their horses' heads.

“Close the gate now,” David ordered the Sergeant.  “Bolt it and then take me to the Colonel at once.”

The Sergeant was obviously astonished, but equally he was aware that despite his extraordinary appearance the man speaking to him was English – and he was giving him orders in the same manner that a British Officer would do.

David pulled off his headgear and smoothed back his greasy hair.

He was tired, very tired, but he had achieved what he had set out to accomplish and this at least gave him a small glow of satisfaction.

The Sergeant had told the guard to shut the gate and now he was back again at David's side.

“Who are you?” he demanded aggressively.

“That is my business, Sergeant.  Now do as I told you and hurry about it.  There is no time to be lost.”

Bewildered yet feeling he could not refuse to obey him, the Sergeant walked ahead.

The two Officers, unaware of what had occurred, had already disappeared and their escort were chatting with a small group of soldiers.

David could hear them laughing and no one had the slightest idea that he had achieved a minor victory in
The
Great Game
by getting himself into the Fort unsuspected.

He was led along various passages until they came to what David recognised were the Officers' quarters.

The Sergeant stopped outside a door, knocked and then he turned to David,

“Now stay 'ere, while I tell the Colonel about you.”

He opened the door and David pushed past him.

Colonel Jones was seated at his writing desk and he looked up in astonishment at the figure confronting him.

David raised his hand in salute.

“Captain David Ingle reporting, sir!”

“Good God!” exclaimed the Colonel.  “I suppose as you are in disguise, you are on some sort of mission.”

“Exactly, sir, and I have something of the greatest importance to tell you and it cannot wait.”

The Colonel pointed to a chair on the other side of his desk.

“Sit down, Captain, and I suppose, if you have been travelling in this heat, you would like something to drink.”

“I would be most grateful, sir.  I have had nothing to eat or drink for the last three days.”

The Colonel rang a bell on his desk and the door opened immediately.

“Food and drink,” he ordered the servant who had appeared, “and be quick about it.”

As the servant closed the door, the Colonel turned to David, wiping his forehead with his hand.

“What is this all about, Captain?”

“You are going to be attacked in strength at dawn.  Tribesmen are already collecting from every direction and I think, in the Russians' eyes, it will be a major assault.  If they can take this Fort, it would be a feather in their cap.”

The Colonel was listening to David carefully.

He picked up another bell and rang it vigorously.

At once the door opened and an Officer appeared.

“You rang, sir?”

“I want every Officer and the Sergeant Major here immediately,” Colonel Jones barked out.

The Officer's eyes widened and then, as he looked at David in surprise, he replied,

“I will send those who have not heard the bell, sir.”

As he turned, three more Officers came hurrying into the room.

The Colonel introduced them all to David and then told them to bring in some chairs.

While they were doing so, the servant came back with a tray of food and a bottle of Indian beer.  He set the tray down on the side of the desk and David began to eat.

He was experienced enough to eat slowly, knowing that to gobble when one was starving was a grave mistake.

The Colonel did not speak to him and he ate with a sense of relief and only as he finished the last drop of beer did he realise that the room was now filled.

The Officers were all seated on the chairs and the Sergeant Major was standing against the wall.

David looked up at the Colonel and smiled.

“Thank you very much, sir.  I have never enjoyed a meal more!”

The Colonel laughed.

“You will have another as soon as you have told us why you are here and why it is so urgent.”

David turned his chair around so that he was facing the Officers in the room.

“You must forgive me,” he began, “if I sit whilst I am talking, but I have been walking for what has seemed to me an age and my feet are somewhat tired.”

He then informed them of what he had overheard in the cave, explaining in detail that he was there because of something he had heard in one of the local villages.

Because the Officers suspected that he was in
The
Great Game
, they listened to every word attentively and only when he had finished did they ply him with questions.

He thought it only right to inform them about how close the Russians were to them and the devastation they were causing among the Khanates in the North and the Caravan towns.

Finally the Colonel took over.

“You have heard what Captain Ingle has told us and I will now tell you what we must do.”

The Officers looked up at him as he continued,

“We must wipe out the attackers before they reach the Fort.  After midnight tonight every man who can use a rifle must be ready to shoot.  Be vigilant; you may not see them until they are on top of us.  Even though it is dark, you will be aware of a man moving towards the Fort, whether he is walking or on his stomach.  It is absolutely essential that not one of them gain access.”

“I should imagine, sir, they will be carrying some means of breaking down the gates.”

“I have thought of that, Napier.  They will not only be doubly strengthened but heavily guarded.”

“I am certain that's very wise, sir.  Shall we go now and set up the barriers?”

David gave a cry of protest.

“They are watching the Fort from every available tree or even from a distant rock or hillock.  Nothing should be moved and you should not give them the slightest idea that you are anticipating trouble?”

As an afterthought he added,

“Is that not correct, sir?”

He thought that perhaps the Colonel would resent his taking over.

“You are so right, Captain.  Everything must appear entirely normal.  Moreover one can never be quite certain that they do not have sympathisers inside the Fort.”

David sighed.

“So true, sir.  It has happened before and at the cost of many British lives.”

“What we must do is relatively simple.  Every rifle, every pistol has to be loaded and ready.  But to all intents and purposes we are walking in the sunshine unperturbed, having not the slightest idea of what might happen.  Is that, Captain Ingle, what you believe is the right tactic?”

“It is the
only
tactic, sir.”

David rose a little unsteadily to his feet.

“May I rest for just two or three hours, sir?”

“Of course. Of course,” Colonel Jones agreed as if he should have thought of it himself.

He told one of the Officers to take him to his room where he knew there was a second bed.

“Let him sleep, but wake the Captain before dinner which we will have a little later than usual.”

David smiled.

“I shall look forward to dinner, sir.”

Major Atkins led him from the Colonel's office.

Only as they walked down the passage did David hear a burst of noise behind him and he guessed that every Officer had started talking all at once.

Major Atkins' room was comparatively cool and the bed was comfortable.

At that moment David would have slept on a bed of nails and not been aware of it.

He threw off his tattered robe, kicked off his shoes, lay down and was fast asleep before his head touched the pillow.

Major Atkins shaded the window from the sun and then left the room closing the door quietly behind him.

He then joined the turmoil upstairs realising that his brother Officers were all excited at the idea of action.

Life could be seriously dull in a Fort where nothing happened day after day.  There were few amusements and certainly not an attractive woman anywhere.

As the Colonel had ordered, weapons were put at the ready.  At the same time the only sign of activity was inside the buildings of the Fort.

Outside men walked about casually, as they always did, looking out over the magnificent view.

David had slept for over four hours without moving when he was woken for dinner.

A bath was prepared for him and he shaved away his beard and the Major lent him some decent clothes.

“I apologise for being a nuisance, Major.”

“You are not a nuisance at all.”

The Major tried, however, to draw David out into telling him where he had been and what he had done.

But David kept his mouth shut and assumed an air of nonchalance, refusing to be drawn into conversation.  He knew it was always a mistake to confide, even to a fellow officer.  Careless words or too much information could result in danger or even death for those who followed him.

It was a wise provision in
The Great Game
that no one, as far as possible, knew who was taking part.   Every player was only ever referred to as a number.

David could only hope that the Officers and men of Fort Tibbee would not talk when they went on leave.

Otherwise, as he was now known to all of them to be in
The Great Game
, it would make everything he tried to do in the future a thousand times more difficult and very much more dangerous.

‘I will speak to them tomorrow,' he told himself.

Then he went to the Officer's Mess for dinner.

Because Indian servants were present, they talked about sport and the political situation in Calcutta. The new Viceroy, Lord Mayo, had been welcomed with much enthusiasm when he had arrived and he was proving to be an exceptional leader.

When dinner was finished, they all moved into the room where the Officers congregated after dinner, where there were several card tables set out.

“Play as we usually do,” the Colonel ordered.

All the Officers sat down and he joined a group of them at one of the tables.

David settled himself in an armchair and before he could be bombarded with more questions he fell asleep and, after what they had heard, no one dared to wake him.

It was midnight before the Colonel rose from his card table,

“I suggest you now change your clothes and go on duty.  Dawn is early and we should be in our proper places well before four o'clock.”

The Officers then all left the room and the Colonel was left with Major Atkins and David was still fast asleep in the armchair.

“Shall I wake him, sir?” the Major asked.

The Colonel shook his head.

“No, let him sleep.  I know just how it feels to be on edge for many days and only sleep can make up for what he has been through.”

“When shall I wake him, sir?”

“Just before you come on duty and give him a rifle and a revolver, if he wants one.”

They both left the room and David slept on.

It was an hour later that he awoke with a start and instantly alert, he sensed danger.

Major Atkins told him,

“We are going on duty now.  The Colonel said you are to have a rifle and a revolver – they are beside you.”

“I have been asleep?” asked David in surprise.

“You deserved it, Captain.”

“I will only have deserved it if everything turns out as we hope.”

David picked up the rifle.

“Now where do you want me to go?”

“Where else but with the Colonel in the front line and I will take you there.”

Major Atkins walked ahead.

David rubbed his eyes.

‘I hope when this is all over,' he thought to himself, ‘I will be able to sleep the clock round!'

Then he wondered that, if after all the planning, the Russians might just prevail and Fort Tibbee would fall into their hands.

This of course would mean disaster for the garrison, but much worse, it would be a deadly blow at British India.

David drew in his breath in trepidation.

‘We
must
win this battle,' he determined, ‘and with God's help we will.'

 

It was so splendid, David mused triumphantly later, how everything had gone according to plan.