Free Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell

that crawled, flew, slunk and stung, and Gore, who was a fastidious and elegant

    man, rather wished he had used his tents.
    “Tell me what happened,” Gore said to Morris, 'again. If you would be so kind."
    Morris, slouching in a chair in front of Gore's table with a thick bandage on his head,

    seemed surprised to be asked, but he straightened himself and offered the Colonel a feeble

    shrug.
    "I don't really recall, sir.
    It was two nights ago, in Seringapatam, and I was hit, sir."
    Gore brushed the spider aside and made a note.
    “Hit,” he said as he wrote the word in his fine copperplate hand.
    “Where exactly?”
    “On the head, sir,” Morris answered.
    Gore sighed.
    “I see that, Captain. I meant where in Seringapatam?”
    “By the armoury, sir.”
    “And this was at night?”
    Morris nodded.
    “Black night, sir,” Hakeswill put in helpfully, 'black as a blackamoor's backside,

    sir."
    The Colonel frowned at the Sergeant's indelicacy. Gore was resisting the urge to push a

    hand inside his coat and scratch his belly. He feared he had caught the Malabar Itch, a foul

    complaint that would condemn him to weeks of living with a salve of lard on his skin, and if

    the lard failed he would be reduced to taking baths in a solution of nitric acid.
    “If it was dark,” he said patiently, 'then surely you had no chance to see your

    assailant?"
    “I didn't, sir,” Morris replied truthfully.
    “But I did, sir,” Hakeswill said, 'and it was Sharpie. Saw him clear as daylight, sir."
    “At night?” Gore asked sceptic ally
    “He was working late, sir,” Hakeswill said, 'on account of him not having done his

    proper work in the daylight like a Christian should, sir, and he opened the door, sir, and

    the lantern was lit, sir, and he came out and hit the Captain, sir."
    “And you saw that?”
    “Clear as I can see you now, sir,” Hakeswill said, his face racked with a series of

    violent twitches.
    Gore's hand strayed to his coat buttons, but he resisted the urge.
    “If you saw it, Sergeant, why didn't you have Sharpe arrested? There were sentries

    present, surely?”
    “More important to save the Captain's life, sir. That's what I deemed, sir. Get him back

    here, sir, into Mister Micklewhite's care. Don't trust other surgeons, sir. And I had to

    clean up Mister Morris, sir, I did.”
    “The blood, you mean?”
    Hakeswill shook his head.
    “The substances, sir.” He stared woodenly over Colonel Gore's head as he spoke.
    “Substances?”
    Hakeswill's face twitched.
    “Begging your pardon, sir, as you being a gentleman as won't want to hear it, sir, but

    Sergeant Sharpe hit Captain Morris with a jakes pot, sir. A full Jakes pot, sir, liquid and

    solids.”
    “Oh, God,” Gore said, laying down his pen and trying to ignore the fiery itch across his

    belly.
    “I still don't understand why you did nothing in Seringapatam,” the Colonel said.
    “The Town Major should have been told, surely?”
    “That's just it, sir,” Hakeswill said enthusiastically, 'on account of there not

    being a Town Major, not proper, seeing as Major Stokes does the duties, sir, and the rest

    is up to the Rajah's hlladar and I don't like seeing a redcoat being arrested by a

    darkie, sir, not even Sharpe. It ain't right, that. And Major Stokes, he won't help, sir. He

    likes
    Sharpe, see? He lets him live comfortable, sir. Off the fat of the land, sir, like it says

    in the scriptures. Got himself a set of rooms and a bibbi, he has, and a servant, too.

    Ain't right, sir. Too comfortable, sir, whiles the rest of us sweats like the soldiers we

    swore to be."
    The explanation made some sort of sense, or at least Gore appreciated that it might

    convince Sergeant Hakeswill, yet there was still something odd about the whole tale.
    “What were you doing at the armoury after dark, Captain?”
    “Making certain the full complement of wagons was there, sir,” Morris answered.
    “Sergeant Hakeswill informed me that one was