The Lion's Den by McCutchan Philip

Author:McCutchan, Philip [McCutchan, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2014-12-09T05:00:00+00:00

TEN

Nothing was said to Gilmour, other than that an apparent bandit attack had been repulsed with only one casualty; Ogilvie didn’t want to bring more worry to Gilmour at the time of his own loss. At full light the hillside was scoured for casualties amongst the attackers, but nothing whatsoever was found. Ogilvie was left with another anxiety: had Mulata Din’s killer staged an alarm simply as cover for his own misdeed? It was not unknown along the Frontier lands for men to fire at shadows, and such would not have appeared unduly remarkable this time. No-one among the sepoys, it was discovered, had actually seen any bandits, nor had they seen any answering gun-flashes from the hillside after the British rifles had opened; and the Pathan from Kunarja, the representative officer from Jarar Mahommed’s bodyguard, had been as baffled as Ogilvie and had been unable to help.

Another worry, also, accompanied Ogilvie as the march was resumed: Lal Binodinand, under close questioning, had confessed his enmity towards Mulata Din, and had given a reason for it, a reason that had brought no comfort whatever to James Ogilvie : the havildar, who, it seemed, had regarded the young sepoy as his own personal protégé, had become jealous of the British officer, Taggart Sahib. Whatever might happen now, the good name of the Royal Strathspeys was going to be dragged through some very filthy mud. Lal Binodinand had protested his complete innocence of the killing, but, after an agonising half-hour of indecision, Ogilvie had felt obliged to hold the havildar in arrest pending a report to the military authorities in Peshawar; and Lal Binodinand was now marching under the not-too-obvious escort of one of the naiks and two sepoys. Ogilvie had taken the decision with great distaste; it went against the grain to make any man march in arrest through the Khyber in such terrible conditions of weather and possible danger. He was well aware that he was perhaps going too closely by the book; but felt that on balance, and in all the circumstances, this was not a matter upon which he could properly exercise an officer’s discretion, however indecisive his investigation had proved. The men who had been bivouacked nearest to Mulata Din had been of no help, repeating again and again that they had seen no-one. As to the revolvers, both Bandra Negi and Lal Binodinand had produced empty chambers for inspection; so had the other two havildars. All the bullets, they said, had been fired into the darkness, which could have been perfectly true and could scarcely be questioned. There had been no need to check Gilmour’s revolver; thus, only Taggart-Blane’s remained unaccounted for, but this was possibly unimportant for he, also, whatever the facts, could have claimed six shots at the enemy as well. The fact of his throwing the weapon into the chasm could have been no more than an act of childish temper at being regarded as suspect : on the other hand...

Ogilvie hardly dared dwell on the implications.

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