Elliot smiled. “You can do no more, Jack.”
“We should never have entered this blasted country,” Jack said.
Elliot nodded. “Never mind, Jack, in a few days we"ll be out of this camp and safe inside the Bala Hissar. With our thousands of bayonets behind those walls, we can laugh at any army, whoever the Amir might be.”
Jack nodded. “I am sure you"re correct, Arthur.”
* * *
Jack felt the ground tremble a few seconds before he heard the sound.
“What the devil?” He ran out of the tent, to see Donnelly staring at the Bala Hissar, from where a cloud of dust and pieces of masonry rose high in the air. A second explosion followed the first, and then a third.
“Somebody"s blown up the Bala Hissar,” Donnelly said. “Imagine if we had been inside, sir.”
“Indeed,” Jack said. He watched as the clo
