The Broken Road | Page 6

events in Luffe's opinion. It
was, indeed, greatly because of his enlightenment that he and a handful
of English officers and troops were beleaguered in the fortress.
"He shall go to Eton and to Oxford, and much good for my people will
come of it," said the Khan. Luffe listened gravely and politely; but he
was thinking of an evening when he had taken out to supper a reigning
queen of comic opera. The recollection of that evening remained with
him when he ascended once more to the roof of the fort and saw the
light of the fires above the sangars. A voice spoke at his elbow. "There
is a new sangar being built in the garden. We can hear them at work,"
said Dewes.
Luffe walked cautiously along the roof to the western end. Quite
clearly they could hear the spades at work, very near to the wall,
amongst the almond and the mulberry trees.
"Get a fireball," said Luffe in a whisper, "and send up a dozen Sikhs."
On the parapet of the roof a rough palisade of planks had been erected
to protect the defenders from the riflemen in the valley and across the
river. Behind this palisade the Sikhs crept silently to their positions. A
ball made of pinewood chips and straw, packed into a covering of
canvas, was brought on to the roof and saturated with kerosene oil.
"Are you ready?" said Luffe; "then now!" Upon the word the fireball
was lit and thrown far out. It circled through the air, dropped, and lay
blazing upon the ground. By its light under the branches of the garden
trees could be seen the Pathans building a stone sangar, within thirty
yards of the fort's walls.
"Fire!" cried Luffe. "Choose your men and fire."

All at once the silence of the night was torn by the rattle of musketry,
and afar off the tom-toms beat yet more loudly.
Luffe looked on with every faculty alert. He saw with a smile that the
Doctor had joined them and lay behind a plank, firing rapidly and with
a most accurate aim. But at the back of his mind all the while that he
gave his orders was still the thought, "All this is nothing. The one
fateful thing is the birth of a son to the Khan of Chiltistan." The little
engagement lasted for about half an hour. The insurgents then drew
back from the garden, leaving their dead upon the field. The rattle of
the musketry ceased altogether. Behind the parapet one Sikh had been
badly wounded by a bullet in the thigh. Already the Doctor was
attending to his hurts.
"It is a small thing, Huzoor," said the wounded soldier, looking
upwards to Luffe, who stood above him; "a very small thing," but even
as he spoke pain cut the words short.
"Yes, a small thing"; Luffe did not speak the words, but he thought
them. He turned away and walked back again across the roof. The new
sangar would not be built that night. But it was a small thing compared
with all that lay hidden in the future.
As he paced that side of the fort which faced the plain there rose
through the darkness, almost beneath his feet, once more the cry which
had reached his ears while he sat at dinner in the courtyard.
He heard a few paces from him the sharp order to retire given by a
sentinel. But the voice rose again, claiming admission to the fort, and
this time a name was uttered urgently, an English name.
"Don't fire," cried Luffe to the sentinel, and he leaned over the wall.
"You come from Wafadar Nazim, and alone?"
"Huzoor, my life be on it."
"With news of Sahib Linforth?"

"Yes, news which his Highness Wafadar Nazim thinks it good for you
to know"; and the voice in the darkness rose to insolence.
Luffe strained his eyes downwards. He could see nothing. He listened,
but he could hear no whispering voices. He hesitated. He was very
anxious to hear news of Linforth.
"I will let you in," he cried; "but if there be more than one the lives of
all shall be the price."
He went down into the fort. Under his orders Captain Lynes drew up
inside the gate a strong guard of Sikhs with their rifles loaded and
bayonets fixed. A few lanterns threw a dim light upon the scene,
glistening here and there upon the polish of an accoutrement or a
rifle-barrel.
"Present," whispered Lynes, and the rifles were raised to the shoulder,
with every muzzle pointing towards the gate.
Then Lynes himself went forward, removed the bars, and turned the
key in the lock. The gate swung open noiselessly a little way, and a tall
man, clad in