Sharpes Gold   ::   Корнуэлл Бернард

Sharpe pointed to the route he had planned. 'Hagman will lead.

Harper nodded. Daniel Hagman had an uncanny ability to find his way in the darkness. Sharpe often wondered how the old poacher had ever been caught, but he supposed that one night the Cheshireman had drunk too much. It was the usual story. Harper had one more objection. 'And the Major, sir? Sharpe said nothing and Harper nodded. 'As you say, sir. A pox on the bloody Major. The Irish Sergeant grinned. 'We can do it."

Sharpe lay in the westering sun, looking at the valley, following the course he had planned until he agreed. It could be done. A pox on Kearsey. He imagined the vault as having a vast stone lid; he saw it, in his mind, being heaved back, to reveal a heap of gold coins that would save the army, defeat the French, and he wondered again why the money was needed. He would have to take all the Company, post a string of guards to face the village, preferably Riflemen, and the gold would have to go in their packs. What if there was more than they could carry? Then they must carry what they could. He wondered about a diversion, a small group of Riflemen in the southern end of the valley to distract the French, but he rejected the idea. Keep it simple. Night attacks could go disastrously wrong and the smallest complication could turn a well-thought plan into a horrid mess that cost lives. He felt the excitement grow. They could do it!

At first the trumpet was so faint that it hardly penetrated Sharpe's consciousness. Rather it was Harper's sudden alertness that stirred him, dragged his mind from the gold beneath the Moreno vault, and made him curse as he looked at the road disappearing to the north-east. 'What was that?

Harper stared at the empty valley. 'Cavalry.

'North?

The Sergeant nodded. 'Nearer to us than the Partisans were, sir. Something's happening up there.

They waited, in silence, and watched the valley. Knowles climbed up beside them. 'What's happening?

'Don't know. Sharpe's instinct, so dormant this morning, was suddenly screaming at him. He turned and called to the sentry on the far side of the gully. 'See anything?

'No, sir.

'There!

Harper was pointing to the road. Kearsey was in sight, cantering the roan towards the village and looking over his shoulder, and then the Major turned off the road, began covering the rough ground towards the slopes where the Partisans had disappeared in a hidden entry to one of the twisted valleys that spilled into the main valley.

'What the devil?

Sharpe's question was answered as soon as he had spoken.