By Eastern windows Read Online Free PDF Page A

lively!’ Lachlan snapped. ‘And from now on, McKenzie, you are forbidden to speak without my permission to do so. In short – keep that bloody blaring gob of yours shut.’   
    Lachlan turned his attention to the sepoy sentry who had been wounded. He instructed two of the men to carry him back to the camp.
    ‘Permission to speak, sir!’ McKenzie called out.
    Lachlan swiftly returned to where McKenzie was still lying and smacked him hard on the back of his head. ‘Permission denied , you bloody idiot!’ he snapped in a loud whisper. ‘Do you want your voice to mark you as a target? Now get back to work – in bloody silence.’
     
    *
     
    Just before dawn the battery was finished. An hour after dawn a bombardment of cannon balls from a line of eighteen-pounders crashed against the walls of Fort Avery, informing the enemy that the British had finished breakfast and were now ready for business.
    The Fort gates opened, a surge of shock troops charged out screaming vengeance, only to be met by a line of free-riding cavalry waving sabres who sent them screaming back to the safety of their fort.
    By noon the front walls of Fort Avery had been severely damaged, the gates were breached, and the scarlet lines swept forward.   By dusk the inhabitants of the Fort were stacking their arms in surrender.
    Having worked through the night and fought through the day, Lieutenant Macquarie and his men were glad of the rest. Many of them were inspecting and comparing their wounds.   ‘We didna do a bad job, did we, sir!’ McKenzie shouted.
    Lachlan allowed the big Scotsman a small smile. ‘You did very well.’
    ‘Is that a fact now, is that a fact?’ McKenzie murmured, then stood in a silence of his own heroic emotions.
    ‘But remember, McKenzie, this is just the beginning. Our real battle will be at Mysore, with the army of Tipu Sultan.’
    ‘Eh? Wha’?’ McKenzie jerked round. ‘Ye mean we’re not done, sir? Ye mean we have to do it all again! ’
    ‘`Fraid so.’ Lachlan offered McKenzie a cynical glance. ‘But with you in our ranks, McKenzie, with all your bulk and brawn and that blathering blaring voice of yours, I’m sure the Sultan’s troops will flee at the first sight and sound of you.’
    McKenzie’s face twitched in a spasm of surprised joy.   ‘Ye reckon? So why do ye always place me at the back then, sir?’
    ‘Just saving the worst till last,’ Lachlan replied sarcastically, mounting his horse.
    After a long pause, McKenzie’s suddenly gushed, ‘Och, sweet Jesus! Ye mean like a hidden weapon that’s kept back to take ‘em by surprise?’
    His words were ignored as Lachlan rode off and another soldier ambled up to McKenzie, saying scathingly, ‘So what’s he been saying to ye now?   Our fine young officer. Didna we prove to him that none of us are cowards?’
    McKenzie turned his head and replied coolly, ‘Our fine young officer is a gentleman    which ye ain’t. He knows what needs to be done which ye don’t. And wha’ he just told me in private – in private mind – is none of your bluidy business.’
     
    *
     
    The marching resumed, day after day, over wild stretches   of land towards the Indian hills.   The soldiers sweltered in the heat. Teams of oxen pulled the cannons and sturdy elephants carried the baggage and tents. After ten days they were ready to make their way up the treacherous jungle pass to the head of the Poodicherum Ghaut. The ascent was ten miles high and dangerously steep, almost up a precipice, a task made worse by the falling of rain.
    At first the men were refreshed by the rain but it quickly proved worse than the heat as they found themselves plodding in mud. The artillery train came to a halt, bogged in the slough.
    Lachlan received a summons from his commanding officer. Colonel Balfour greeted him grimly. ‘Ah, Lieutenant Macquarie. What say you about these mud slopes, eh?’
    ‘Our progress will be slow, sir. The wheels and guns will continue to get