Sharpe's Gold Read Online Free PDF Page A

the sea, and soon. How do we

    respond?' Wellington, it occurred to Sharpe, was using up time. He was waiting for

    something or someone.
    Lawford was feeling uncomfortable. The question was one he would rather hear answered

    by the General. 'Bring them to battle, sir?'
    'Thirty thousand troops, plus twenty-five thousand untried Portuguese, against three

    hundred and fifty thousand men?'
    Wellington let the figures hang in the air like the dust that shifted silently in the

    slanting sunlight over his desk. Overhead the feet of the men operating the telegraph

    still shuffled. The figures, Sharpe knew, were unfair. Massena needed thousands of those

    men to contain the Guerrilleros, the Partisans, but even so the disparity in numbers was

    appalling. Wellington sniffed. There was a knock on the door.
    'Come in.'
    'Sir.'
    The Major who had shown them into the room handed a slip of paper to the General, who

    read it, closed his eyes momentarily, and sighed.
    'The rest of the message is still coming?'
    'Yes, sir. But the gist is there.'
    The Major left and Wellington leaned back in his chair. The news had been bad, Sharpe

    could tell, but not, perhaps, unexpected. He remembered that Wellington had once said

    that running a campaign was like driving a team of horses with a rope harness. The ropes

    kept breaking and all a General could do was tie a knot and keep going. A rope was

    unravelling, here and now, an important one, and Sharpe watched the fingers drum on the

    edge of the table. The eyes came up to Sharpe again, flicked to Lawford.
    'Colonel?'
    'Sir?'
    'I am borrowing Captain Sharpe from you, and his Company. I doubt whether I need them

    for more than one month.'
    'Yes, my lord.' Lawford looked at Sharpe and shrugged.
    Wellington stood again. He seemed to be relieved, as if a decision had been made. 'The

    war is not lost, gentlemen, though I know my confidence is not universally shared.' He

    sounded bitter, angry with the defeatists whose letters home were quoted in the

    newspapers. 'We may bring the French to battle, and if we do we will win.' Sharpe never

    doubted it. Of all Britain's generals this was the only one who knew how to beat the

    French. 'If we win we will only delay their advance.' He opened a map, stared at it blankly,

    and let it snap shut again into a roll. 'No, gentlemen, our survival depends on something

    else. Something that you, Captain Sharpe, must bring me. Must, do you hear? Must.'
    Sharpe had never heard the General so insistent. 'Yes, sir.'
    Lawford coughed. 'And if he fails, my lord?'
    The wintry smile again. 'He had better not.' He looked at Sharpe. 'You are not the only

    card in my hand, Mr Sharpe, but you are… important. There are things happening,

    gentlemen, that this army does not know about. If it did it would be generally more

    optimistic.' He sat down again, leaving them mystified. Sharpe suspected the

    mystification was on purpose. He was spreading some counter-rumours to the defeatists,

    and that, too, was part of a general's job. He looked up again. 'You are now under my

    orders, Captain Sharpe. Your men must be ready to march this night. They must not be

    encumbered with wives or unnecessary baggage, and they must have full ammunition.'
    'Yes, sir.'
    'And you will be back here in one hour. You have two tasks to perform.'
    Sharpe wondered if he was to be told what they were. 'Sir?'
    'First, Mr Sharpe, you will receive your orders. Not from me but from an old companion

    of yours.' Wellington saw Sharpe's quizzical look. 'Major Hogan.'
    Sharpe's face betrayed his pleasure. Hogan, the engineer, the quiet Irishman who was a

    friend, whose sense Sharpe had leaned on in the difficult days leading to Talavera.

    Wellington saw the pleasure and tried to puncture it. 'But before that, Mr Sharpe, you will

    apologize to Lieutenant Ayres.' He watched for Sharpe's reaction.
    'But of course, sir. I had always planned to.' Sharpe looked shocked at the thought that