JК
Sharpes Havoc :: Корнуэлл Бернард
Страница: 83 из 242”
„It’s a sensible thing to do,” Harper said.
„And Kate was saying how the folk in the valleys would send their valuables up here. Coins, jewels, gold. All of it up here, Pat, so that the heathen bastards wouldn’t snatch it. And then there was an earthquake nd the tower fell in and the locals reckon there’s treasure under those tones.”
Harper looked skeptical. „And why wouldn’t they dig it up, sir? The folk in the village don’t strike me as halfwits. I mean, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, if I knew there was a pit of bloody gold up on a hill I wouldn’t be vasting my time with a plough or a harrow.”
„That’s just it,” Sharpe said. He was making up the story as he went ilong and thought desperately for an answer to Harper’s entirely reasonable objection. „There was a child, you see, buried with the gold and the egend says the child will haunt the house of whoever digs up its bones. But only a local house,” he added hastily.
Harper sniffed at that embellishment, then looked back down the path. „So you want a fort here?”
„And we need to bring barrels of water here,” Sharpe said. That was the summit’s weakness, no water. If the French came and he had to retreat to the hilltop then he did not want to surrender just because of thirst. „Miss Savage”-he still did not think of her as Mrs. Christopher-’will find us barrels.”
„Up here? In the sun? Water will go rancid,” Harper warned him.
„A splash of brandy in each one,” Sharpe said, remembering his voyages to and from India and how the water had always tasted faintly of rum. „I’ll find the brandy.”
„And you really expect me to believe there’s gold under those stones, sir?”
„No,” Sharpe admitted, „but I want the men to half believe it. It’s going to be hard work building walls up here, Pat, and dreams of treasure never hurt.”
So they built the fort and never found gold, but in the spring sunlight they made the hilltop into a redoubt where a handful of infantry could grow old under siege. The ancient builders had chosen well, not just selecting the highest peak for miles around to build their watchtower, but also a place that was easily defended. Attackers could only come from the north or the south, and in both cases they would have to pick their way along narrow paths. Sharpe, exploring the southern path one day, found a rusted arrowhead under a boulder and he took it back to the summit and showed it to Kate. She held it beneath the brim of her wide straw hat and turned it this way and that. „It probably isn’t very old,” she said.
„It’s a sensible thing to do,” Harper said.
„And Kate was saying how the folk in the valleys would send their valuables up here. Coins, jewels, gold. All of it up here, Pat, so that the heathen bastards wouldn’t snatch it. And then there was an earthquake nd the tower fell in and the locals reckon there’s treasure under those tones.”
Harper looked skeptical. „And why wouldn’t they dig it up, sir? The folk in the village don’t strike me as halfwits. I mean, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, if I knew there was a pit of bloody gold up on a hill I wouldn’t be vasting my time with a plough or a harrow.”
„That’s just it,” Sharpe said. He was making up the story as he went ilong and thought desperately for an answer to Harper’s entirely reasonable objection. „There was a child, you see, buried with the gold and the egend says the child will haunt the house of whoever digs up its bones. But only a local house,” he added hastily.
Harper sniffed at that embellishment, then looked back down the path. „So you want a fort here?”
„And we need to bring barrels of water here,” Sharpe said. That was the summit’s weakness, no water. If the French came and he had to retreat to the hilltop then he did not want to surrender just because of thirst. „Miss Savage”-he still did not think of her as Mrs. Christopher-’will find us barrels.”
„Up here? In the sun? Water will go rancid,” Harper warned him.
„A splash of brandy in each one,” Sharpe said, remembering his voyages to and from India and how the water had always tasted faintly of rum. „I’ll find the brandy.”
„And you really expect me to believe there’s gold under those stones, sir?”
„No,” Sharpe admitted, „but I want the men to half believe it. It’s going to be hard work building walls up here, Pat, and dreams of treasure never hurt.”
So they built the fort and never found gold, but in the spring sunlight they made the hilltop into a redoubt where a handful of infantry could grow old under siege. The ancient builders had chosen well, not just selecting the highest peak for miles around to build their watchtower, but also a place that was easily defended. Attackers could only come from the north or the south, and in both cases they would have to pick their way along narrow paths. Sharpe, exploring the southern path one day, found a rusted arrowhead under a boulder and he took it back to the summit and showed it to Kate. She held it beneath the brim of her wide straw hat and turned it this way and that. „It probably isn’t very old,” she said.