Jack Windrush Collection

Chapter 16

From Pegu they moved northward, deeper into Burma with the landscape growing wilder by the mile. Every day they stopped at a village, with Marshall talking to the headman as Jack and his men acted as escort in a procedure that grew so familiar, it became routine.

"Bo Ailgaliutlo has a stockade only three days march from here,." Marshall emerged from the hut with what might pass for a smile on his face. "We can be there in two by the river." He looked skyward. "And then we destroy them, man and boy, and burn the stockade to the ground."

"Yes, sir." Jack remembered the artillery and storming parties for the White House Picket and wondered how Marshall intended to capture a stockade held by tenacious Burmese dacoits with a handful of British infantrymen and the crew of a single John Company vessel.

"Two days to reach them," Commander Marshall repeated, "two days to reduce the place, another to hang the prisoners and a week to return to Rangoon. We will be back in fourteen days at the latest."

Then what? Back to being an outcast officer with no prospects, while General Godwin leads the main British Army to glory against the King of Ava.

Then what? Back to being an outcast officer with no prospects, while General Godwin leads the main British Army to glory against the King of Ava.Jack stared at the gloomy bamboo jungle as a monkey gibbered to him from its perch on an upper branch. Only the presence of Myat makes this campaign worthwhile.

Only the presence of Myat makes this campaign worthwhile.The drums started before dawn, so quiet that Jack barely noticed them. They thrummed from the dense jungle of the Pegu Yoma hills that stretched to the north as far as he could see, echoed along the dark banks of the river and invaded everything that he did. By the time the first grey-green beams of light filtered through the trees, they were audible to even the least sensitive of men so that Coleman nudged O"Neill with a whispered enquiry.

"Can you hear that, Paddy? I think it"s the Burmese."

O"Neill swivelled his eyes and turned his head to one side. He cupped a hand to his ear. "Of course, I can hear it Coley; the whole b****y ship can hear it."

"Quieten down lads!" Wells said, and the drums invaded again, throbbing through that morning as Serangipatam pushed upstream with the 113th on deck, swatting mosquitoes as sweat dampened their clothes and ran into their eyes.

Serangipatam"Keep a sharp lookout, boys." Loosening the revolver in its holster, Jack peered into the jungle, hoping to see one of the drummers.

"You won"t see them." Myat seemed to read his mind. "They can see us, but we"ll never see them."

"Who are they? The king"s forces?" Jack could almost feel the predatory eyes probing into him as the ship eased upstream.

"Maybe, or perhaps a band of dacoits. It could be anybody."

"Keep your men alert, Windrush." Marshall"s voice was as quiet as ever.

"Yes, sir."

The river eased into a succession of bends, each one tighter than the last, with Marshall giving precise orders to the helmsman to keep in the centre of the channel.

A seaman pattered past Jack and hauled a marked length of weighted rope into the river, pulled it out and started to chant the depth.

"Quarter speed," Marshall ordered, and Serangipatam slowed further.

Serangipatam"Careful now boys." Wells c****d his musket. "This is the sort of place the dacoits might choose." A monkey screamed from the trees, joined by a score of others.

"b****y monkeys." Graham aimed his musket at one and closed his left eye. "Bang, bang."

"Load your pieces," Jack ordered and saw the relief on his men"s faces as they poured powder and ball down the barrels of their muskets and added the percussion cap. He began to pace the length of the ship, one hand on his revolver.

The sound of drums increased, echoing through the trees.

"Battle stations," Marshall ordered, "handsomely now!"

The sailors ran to their guns and stood alert as the smoke from Serangipatam"s funnel lay thick on the deck.

SerangipatamThe leadsman continued to chant the depth as if nothing else was happening. "Four fathoms, muddy bottom."

The drums continued their beating, louder now as if in competition with the invasive throb of Serangipatam"s engine. Jack flinched as a gaudily coloured bird exploded from the trees.

Serangipatam"Three and a half fathoms, muddy bottom."

"Just around the next bend, men, there is a friendly village." It was so unusual for Marshall to give out any information that Jack knew the persistent drumming must be unsettling even him.

There was no village around the next bend or the one after that; only the jungle; thick, tangled and unfriendly. Creepers hung over the river with some dragged by the current. A deer watched them for a second before turning to vanish in the undergrowth. There was something else there as well. At first, Jack was unsure what it was, monkey or human but as he stared, he saw it was a man, or rather a boy, tattooed so heavily he seemed to merge with the jungle.

"I smell smoke, sir," Thorpe volunteered. "Not our funnel smoke. Something"s burning ahead.

"Thank you, Thorpe," Jack said. It had a different scent, more acrid, sharper, laced with some odour he recognised but couldn"t place.

"Meat," Myat said, "it"s like cooked meat. They have made a feast for us."

"Human flesh," Wells said quietly. He eased his hands over the stock of his musket. "I"ve smelled that before."

They rounded the next bend, and the village came in sight. It was a typical neat Burmese riverside settlement with a score of thatched huts and half a dozen sharp-prowed boats pulled up on the mud, except that every house was ablaze, and the boats were holed and sinking. Piled at the water"s edge was a mound of corpses, smouldering and sparking within a circle of flames.

"Jesus!" Knight lifted his musket.

"Jesus must have looked the other way." Wells glanced at Jack. "Are we going in, sir?"

That depends on the Commander.

That depends on the Commander."Steer straight on, helmsman." Marshall spared the village a single glance.

"There could be somebody left alive sir," Jack suggested. "We might be able to help them."

"They can"t help us." Marshall unbent sufficiently to explain.

Smoke from the village merged with that from the ship as they passed.

"There may be a survivor, wounded and injured…"

Marshall didn"t reply. Serangipatam rounded the next bend and the landscape altered with banyan trees amidst swampy fields of rice on one bank and patchy forest on the other.

Serangipatam"These fields will be untended then," Wells said.

"Why is that, sergeant?" Coleman asked.

"There"s nobody left to look after them,." Wells jerked his head in the direction of the village. "The dacoits have killed them all." The drumming surrounded them, beating at their ears, rebounding from the hull of the ship.

"Where are they?" Thorpe licked his lips with a dry tongue. "Why don"t they attack?"

"They will," Wells said. "When they"re ready, and they think we"re not."

"We"ll anchor in mid-channel tonight," Marshall gave the order. "Keep sentries posted, Windrush. The dacoits may try to attack in the dark."

"They"re everywhere," Knight said, "they"re all around us."

"There"s something in the river, sir," the sailor at the masthead shouted, "it"s some kind of boat."

"Stand by!" Marshall shouted. "Slow ahead; cutlass men forward."

"Ready men," Jack echoed. He pulled his revolver from its holster as half a dozen seamen pattered past, each holding a cutlass.

Serangipatam eased on.

Serangipatam"There it is," Lieutenant Bertram pointed. "It"s a raft, sir, with somebody on it."

"Boathooks," Marshall ordered, "bring him in."

"Keep alert, men," Jack ordered. "This could be a trick."

The raft was about six-foot square with a man lying on top. As the current brought the raft alongside, Jack saw that the man was stark n***d, spread-eagled and with his hands and feet fastened to the bamboo planking. A seaman hooked the raft in, so it bobbed and bounced beside Serangipatam. The man stared up through sightless eyes.

Serangipatam"He"s dead, sir," the seaman said.

"Let him go," Marshall ordered.

The seaman released the boathook, and the raft resumed its lonely voyage. The drums continued, mocking the handful of British seamen and soldiers.

Despite the clammy heat, Jack shivered as night raced in. The jungle sounds always seemed louder in the dark, the cry of unseen animals and unknown birds were sinister, as though they came from a soul tortured beyond endurance.

"Double sentries, Sergeant," he said. "I don"t want the men standing alone tonight." He knew he didn"t have to explain his decision.

"They"ll be tired tomorrow," Wells took advantage of his leniency.

"They"ll have more chance of being alive tomorrow!" Jack turned abruptly away.

He slumped in the stifling cubicle that was more like a coffin than a cabin. I am too easy on these men. If I don"t maintain a proper distance to maintain my authority, they"ll take advantage of me. I must be a laughing stock. The lapse of duty in Pegu still preyed on his mind. I hope the men didn"t see me drunk.

I am too easy on these men. If I don"t maintain a proper distance to maintain my authority, they"ll take advantage of me. I must be a laughing stock.I hope the men didn"t see me drunk.The bed was damp with the sweat of the engineer with whom he shared, and the high-pitched whine of insects disturbed his attempts at sleep. Thoughts and images bustled through his mind, from the piled-up corpses in the last village to the constant throbbing of the drums.

The shout penetrated the muddle of his mind, so he sat up with a jerk.

"Halt and identify yourself!"

Jack was at the door of the cabin before he realised he had neither sword nor pistol. As he turned back, he heard the report of a musket, and then another.

"Get back you hound of hell! Back to the jungle, damn you!"

By the time Jack got onto the deck, there was nothing to be seen. O"Neill was reloading as Armstrong peered into the vicious darkness.

"What happened here?"

"There was something in the water." O"Neill tested the hammer of his musket. "It might have been dacoits, it might not, but I thought best to let them see we"re ready for them."

Marshall appeared on the quarterdeck. "Call all hands. Windrush, get your men on deck." As always, he spoke softly, but his words carried throughout the ship.

"Lanterns," Marshall ordered. "Bertram, attach lanterns on long poles and hang them over the sides."

The dark seemed to press upon them, dense, humid and alive with the whine of insects. One by one, Bertram had lanterns lit and hung from the spars, so a halo of light illuminated Serangipatam; she was a ghost ship trapped within a circle of predatory night.

Serangipatam"Now they can see us," Wells stood at attention at the rail of the ship, "but we can"t see a b****y thing."

"We"re attracting every b****y moth and flying brute in Burma," Coleman muttered.

For a few moments, Jack was unaware of the silence; he merely knew something had changed.

"They"ve stopped," O"Neill"s voice broke the silence. "The drums have stopped." Only the sounds of nature remained, frightening in their variety and intensity as insects and night-prowling creatures competed to make the night hideous.

"What does that mean?" Thorpe asked, "maybe they"ve all gone away?"

Lantern light reflected from Myat"s hair when she appeared on the quarterdeck. She spoke to Marshall. He nodded and raised his voice a fraction. "Man the guns."

"Out there!" Bertram shouted. "War boats – dozens of them!"

They surged into the circle of light, long, high-prowed vessels packed with warriors, each with muscular men paddling the river into white-frothed fury.

Dear God, there are scores of them.

Dear God, there are scores of them."Aim at that first boat," Jack ordered. "Volley fire!" Ten muskets cracked out. "Reload, fast as Christ will let you." He didn"t look to see the result but flinched as the g*n crew next to him fired. The sound was shocking, the results terrible as a charge of grapeshot crashed directly into the second Burmese war-boat. The c*****e was immediate with dead and wounded men flung backwards and head, arms and dismembered torsos thrown up in the air. For a second, Jack saw a hanging curtain of blood that pattered to the water.

"And that"s done for you, you bastards!" O"Neill"s voice sounded through the screams and yells of the wounded.

A spear thudded into the deck beside Jack, and a seaman yelled, plucking at the arrow that spouted miraculously from his arm.

"They"re in the trees above us!" Jack shouted. "Wells, you and O"Neill concentrate on the trees, and the rest take the war-boats."

"Quarter speed ahead," Marshall ordered. "Bertram, put a man in the bows with a line."

Serangipatam rocked as she picked up speed, nosing ahead of the slender war-boats that crowded around. One war-boat tried to close and board, but Marshall altered course and Serangipatam rammed her amidships and split her in two. Jack saw pieces of wreckage and shrieking men on either side of the hull, with seamen and soldiers firing at the survivors.

SerangipatamSerangipatam"Keep them at a distance!" Jack said. "Volley fire is best; six shots to one boat are of more use than single shots to half a dozen. That boat there!" He indicated a vessel that approached rapidly from the bows. "Give it a volley!"

Jack flinched as a Burmese ball smacked into the rail, and another lifted a splinter of wood from the deck. Lantern light reflected from the hazy powder smoke that drifted in their wake.

Another two Burmese boats loomed into the circle of light, and for a second, Jack saw a nightmare vision of wiry, sturdy men in loincloths and simple turbans paddling vigorously as a score of yelling warriors brandished dhas, or fired long muskets at Serangipatam.

SerangipatamThe man standing in the bow of the leading boat wore a once scarlet coat that had faded to dirty pink. For an instant, he gazed directly into Jack"s eyes, and despite the haze of powder smoke and the flickering lantern light, Jack knew this was Bo Ailgaliutlo. This man was not afraid in the slightest; his eyes were sharp and lively as if he relished the encounter with an Honourable Company vessel and its contingent of British soldiers.

"That boat!" Jack pointed directly at Bo Ailgaliutlo, "and that man. Give him a volley."

But the renegade had other plans. He shouted something and the musket men in his war-boat fired a volley of their own. The muskets, Burmese and British, crashed out together and two of the British lanterns exploded in a thousand fragments of glass.

"He"s putting out the lights," Jack yelled. "Give him another volley!"

"I can"t see him, sir; where is he?" Graham shouted.

Jack swore. The renegade had pulled his boat back into the darkness. "Listen for the paddles," he ordered.

Only the steady surge of the river and the pulse of the engines disturbed the silence. The musketry had stilled the usual night sounds of the river.

"They"ve run away," Coleman shouted. "We"ve won!" He began to cheer until Wells snarled him into silence.

"Two fathoms," the leadsman"s voice sounded, as it had probably done throughout the encounter.

"Bertram, replace the broken lanterns. Men, keep at the guns.," Marshall"s voice sounded.

"They"re out there, waiting," Wells peered into the dark. "I can smell them." He raised his voice slightly. "Make sure you"re all loaded and ready, lads. The dacoits aren"t finished with us yet."

"What will their next move be?" Jack asked.

"I don"t know sir," Wells said. "I"ve never known dacoits to attack a well-armed boat before. Their typical tactics are to murder sentries or parties of foragers, burn villages and rob travellers. This Bo Ailgaliutlo fellow is different from any other I have encountered before. They say…" He looked away quickly and relapsed into silence.

"They say?" Jack prompted. "They say what, Wells, and who are they?"

"Nothing sir," Wells was uncharacteristically hesitant.

"Spit it out, man!" Jack glanced around. "Any information could help and hurry before they come back."

"I heard that this Bo Ailgaliutlo was a British soldier, sir," Wells said, "that"s all."

"We already guessed that." Jack didn"t hide his irritation. "You know something else, Wells; what is it, man?"

"It was just something I overheard in one of the villages, sir. You know that I speak a little Burmese." Wells looked away. "Well sir, the Burmese in one of these villages we were in say that Bo Ailgaliutlo was a British officer, not just a private or even a sergeant."

"Good God!" Jack couldn"t help his exclamation of surprise.

An officer? A gentleman? English gentlemen don"t do such things. I would be prepared to believe that a ranker might join the enemy, but not an officer.

An officer? A gentleman? English gentlemen don"t do such things. I would be prepared to believe that a ranker might join the enemy, but not an officer.As Jack swung away, the Buddha in his pocket seemed twice as weighty as it had before. English gentlemen are not supposed to loot and steal either, yet I now know they do.

English gentlemen are not supposed to loot and steal either, yet I now know they do."Thank you, Sergeant." Jack tried to keep any expression from his voice.

"One and a half fathoms," the leadsman reported.

"Slow ahead," Marshall ordered, an instant before Serangipatam ran onto something in the river.

SerangipatamThe shock of the collision knocked most people onto the deck, with loose gear rattling forward and a line aloft parting with a sickening c***k.

"We"re aground!" Bertram yelled.

"Jesus God in heaven!" Knight blasphemed. "What happened?"

"It"s the Burmese," Thorpe shouted.

Then the drums began again, a thunderous roar that came from all around, accompanied by loud chanting that raised the hairs on the back of Jack"s neck.

Serangipatam"s engines raced, driving her further onto whatever she had struck. "Stop engines; check for damage below." Marshall"s voice cut through the clamour. "Fire the bow chaser; prepare to repel boarders!" His orders came in a rapid procession. "Full astern! Mr Bertram, check for damage aloft. Mr Windrush, the dacoits will attack now, have your men ready."

SerangipatamThe thunder of drums rose to a crescendo and then stopped as a fusillade of musketry smashed against the hull and upperworks of Serangipatam. One seaman staggered, cursed and grabbed hold of his shoulder. Bright blood seeped between his fingers. Easterhouse, the quietest of Jack"s men, slumped to the deck, staring at the blood that pumped from his thigh.

Serangipatam"Volley fire," Jack stepped to the rail. He was presenting himself as a target for every Burmese marksman, but knew he had to make an example to his men.

"What"s the target, sir?" Wells asked. "We can"t see a blessed thing."

"Aim for the muzzle flashes," Jack said.

"They"re not firing," Coleman pointed out.

"I"ll make them fire." Jack felt the increased pounding of his heart as he spread himself out against the rail. "Come on Bo Ailgaliutlo; here I am, you traitor, you black-hearted scoundrel! I am Ensign Jack Windrush of the 113th– come and shoot me!"

As he"d hoped and feared the Burmese responded with a fusillade of musketry, but shooting from moving boats at a shifting target on a river at night was not easy, even for trained soldiers. For native warriors with poor quality muskets, it was nearly impossible. The musket balls spattered all around Jack, but not a single one came within a foot of him, while the muzzle flashes betrayed the Burmese positions. Jack cursed when a ball smashed the lantern at the starboard bow.

"Fire lads!" Wells gave the order, and the 113th fired a volley. The muzzle flashes ripped apart the black of the night.

"Slow astern." Marshall ignored the battle that raged around him as he concentrated on saving his ship. "How is she forward?"

"We"re holed, sir!" Bertram replied at once. "We ran onto a pointed stake; the Burmese have staked the river here."

They feigned the attack with war boats to force us to move faster, so we didn"t see the stakes. Bo Ailgaliutlo is a subtle and dangerous man.

"Half astern; fire both broadsides." Marshall gave the order. "Blast them with everything we have." He raised his voice. "Mr. Windrush, keep your men firing if you will."

The roar of Serangipatam"s weaponry interrupted Jack"s reply. Each flare from the cannon muzzles revealed a vignette of the battle. Jack saw images of men of the 113th loading and firing, open mouths and moving hands, red jackets and concentrating faces. He saw seamen holding cannonballs or ramrods, clouds of white powder-smoke set against the black backdrop of night, spars and masts of Serangipatam ripped by Burmese musketry. And then, out of nowhere, a sea of tawny faces appeared as a boatload of dacoits swarmed up Serangipatam"s sides.

SerangipatamSerangipatam"Cutlasses lads!" a lithe young lieutenant shouted as the vignettes merged into a tableau of violence and courage.

"With me, the 113th!" There was the shriek of steel as Jack drew his sword and dashed forward. "Depend on the bayonet lads! Don"t shoot the bluejackets."

The Burmese on board surged toward the quarterdeck, slashing with their dhas in a silent frenzy as the 113th met them with bayonet, boot and musket butt. The naval officers gave sharp orders that drew the seamen together in a compact line; they drew their cutlasses and moved slowly forward, stamping, slashing, parrying and thrusting in a show of disciplined skill that Jack would have admired had he the time to watch.

O"Neill lunged toward the groin of the first dacoit and when the man dropped his guard to defend himself, lifted the point of his bayonet and spitted him under the chin. "And that"s done for you!" he roared.

Jack thrust at a fierce-eyed man in a large turban, missed and flinched as a dha hissed perilously close to his ear, recovered his aim and slashed instead. He swore as the Burman parried, recovered and thrust at the man"s stomach and saw him fall under the flailing butt of a British musket.

"On me, the 113th!"

Then Serangipatam was moving faster, surging astern up the river and leaving the war-boats in her wake. Realising there was no hope of reinforcement from their fellows, the dacoits on board turned to flee, with redcoats and bluejackets cutting them down as they mounted the rail and jumped into the water.

Serangipatam"Eradicate them, lads!" Lieutenant Hook must have been in his bunk for he was stark n***d except for a belt as he swung at the dacoits with a cutlass, shouting encouragement to his seamen. "Send them to Nirvana!"

Within a few moments, the deck was clear of dacoits and the British stood in a panting, sweating group watching the few survivors swim out of the broken circle of light and vanish into the gloom. The silence was sudden and dense.

"Roll call," Jack shouted. "Anybody hurt?" He saw Easterhouse crumpled on deck with blood around his thigh and his throat sliced open. Another of my men gone.

Another of my men gone.Myat appeared amongst them, passing the seamen without a glance. She looked at Wells, her eyebrows raised. Only when he nodded did she approach Jack. "Are your men unhurt, Ensign Windrush?"

Jack counted the 113th. "One dead, all the others present and upright."

Myat looked around; her eyes flicked up and down the length of Hook"s n***d body and moved away.

I wonder what that woman is thinking?

I wonder what that woman is thinking?"Get this rubbish off my deck, Lieutenant Bertram. I want all these bodies removed and the decks scrubbed of all blood." Marshall"s voice cut from the quarter-deck.

"How about the wounded, sir? Shall we—"

"Throw them overboard,." Marshall didn"t allow Bertram to finish his sentence. "Lieutenant Hook, we are leaking forward where that stake penetrated; fix it. Lieutenant Sinclair, check for damage aloft. I heard something fall when we hit. Get it sorted. Lieutenant Buchanan, see to our casualties." Marshall was fully dressed including a blue jacket tightly buttoned to the neck and his uniform cap square on his head. "Stop engines. Ensign Windrush, position your men to guard the ship; I want no more dacoits on board."

With her engines stopped and anchors out, Serangipatam sat in the centre of the river, silent, l*****g her wounds as Bertram restored her circle of light. There was no sentiment as the seamen tossed the dacoits overboard, dealing with the wounded as casually as the dead and ignoring any pleas they may have made for mercy.

Serangipatam"If they caught any of us," Wells said, "they would t*****e us to death. We are kinder than they are; remember what happened to Smithy, or that lad on the raft."

Jack thought of the portraits on the wall in Wychwood Manor; generations of Windrushes looking noble in front of various battlefields. There was no romance in war on this frontier.

Dawn brought the usual mist that hung low on the river and concealed the banks, so visibility was little better than at night. Jack positioned his men all around the ship and paced the deck in a non-stop circle as the morning sounds of birds increased, and the insects hummed and buzzed around his ears.

"They"ll be watching everything we do," Wells thumbed the lock of his musket. He glanced toward the quarter-deck where Myat stood beside Marshall. "I"ll be happier once we"re on the move again."

"At least we know we"re on the right path," Jack said. "Bo Ailgaliutlo must be out of temper with us to risk a full- scale attack."

"It"s unusual, sir," Wells agreed. "I"ve never known a dacoit to attack a warship before, especially one with a military escort. I think this fellow is from the Burmese army, rather than just a bandit."

"Slow ahead," Marshall ordered. "Take us to where we hit the stakes." He stalked to the bow. "Mr. Hook, have you plugged that leak yet? Mr Sinclair, is all sorted aloft? Mr Buchanan, get the men to breakfast if you please." He passed Jack without a word and peered into the mist. "This muck will be clear within twenty minutes; I want to be on the move by then. Mr Bertram, when we reach the stakes, man the launch and check ahead; remove any obstacles you find. Windrush, you take the jolly-boat and escort him."