Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell Read Free Book Online

lovely edge on her.” Stokes unpeeled his red jacket

    and rolled up his sleeves.
    “Timber don't season here properly, that's the trouble.” He stooped to the new

    carriage and began running the spokeshave along the trail, leaving curls of new white wood

    to fall away.
    “I'm mending a clock,” he told Sharpe while he worked, 'a lovely-made piece, all but for

    some crude local gearing.
    Have a look at it. It's in my office."
    “I will, sir.”
    “And I've found some new timber for axletrees, Sharpe. It's really quite

    exciting!”
    “They'll still break, sir,” Sharpe said gloomily, then scooped up one of the many cats that

    lived in the armoury. He put the tabby on his lap and stroked her into a contented

    purr.
    “Don't be so doom-laden, Sharpe! We'll solve the axletree problem yet. It's only a

    question of timber, nothing but timber. There, that looks better.” The Major stepped back

    from his work and gave it a critical look. There were plenty of Indian craftsmen employed

    in the armoury, but Major Stokes liked to do things himself, and besides, most of the

    Indians were busy preparing for the feast of Dusshera which involved manufacturing three

    giant-sized figures that would be paraded to the Hindu temple and there burned. Those

    Indians were busy in another open-sided shed where they had glue bubbling on a fire, and

    some of the men were pasting lengths of pale cloth onto a wicker basket that would form one

    of the giants' heads. Stokes was fascinated by their activity and Sharpe knew it would

    not be long before the Major joined them.
    “Did I tell you a sergeant was here looking for you this morning?”
    Stokes asked.
    “No, sir.”
    “Came just before dinner,” Stokes said, 'a strange sort of fellow." The Major stooped to

    the trail and attacked another section of wood.
    “He twitched, he did.”
    “Obadiah Hakeswill,” Sharpe said.
    “I think that was his name. Didn't seem very important,” Stokes said.
    “Said he was just visiting town and looking up old companions. D'you know what I was

    thinking?”
    “Tell me, sir,” Sharpe said, wondering why in holy hell Obadiah Hakeswill had been

    looking for him. For nothing good, that was certain.
    “Those teak beams in the Tippoo's old throne room,” Stokes said, 'they'll be seasoned well

    enough. We could break out a half-dozen of the things and make a batch of axletrees from

    them!"
    “The gilded beams, sir?” Sharpe asked.
    “Soon have the gilding off them, Sharpe. Plane them down in twof shakes!”
    “The Rajah may not like it, sir,” Sharpe said.
    Stokes's face fell.
    "There is that, there is that. A fellow don't usually like his ceilings being pulled

    down to make gun carriages. Still, the Rajah's usually most obliging if you can get past

    his damned courtiers.
    The clock is his. Strikes eight when it should ring nine, or perhaps it's the other way

    round. You reckon that quoin's true?"
    Sharpe glanced at the wedge which lowered and raised the cannon barrel.
    “Looks good, sir.”
    “I might just plane her down a shade. I wonder if our templates are out of true? We might

    check that. Isn't this rain splendid? The flowers were wilting, wilting! But I'll have a

    fine show this year with a spot of rain. You must come and see them.”
    “You still want me to stay here, sir?” Sharpe asked.
    “Stay here?” Stokes, who was placing the quoin in a vice, turned to look at Sharpe.
    “Of course I want you to stay here, Sergeant. Best man I've got!”
    “I lost six men, sir.”
    “And it wasn't your fault, not your fault at all. I'll get you another six.”
    Sharpe wished it was that easy, but he could not chase the guilt of Chasalgaon out of his

    mind. When the massacre was finished he had wandered about the fort in a half-daze. Most of

    the women and children still lived, but they had been frightened and had shrunk away from

    him. Captain Roberts, the second in command of the fort, had returned from patrol