"Well enough, sir."
"Good. I have forty sick already and rising. If things go on as they are, we"ll have more men in hospital than on the defences." He scanned the perimeter with his binoculars. "Hostile Burmese surround us, I see."
The next day the local people began to filter into Pegu for protection. At first, they came in singly and then in family groups. Soon the whole population of villages arrived with men driving the huge Burmese bullock carts with the family sitting on top. Hill watched them for a day and ordered a stockade built just outside the pagoda. "There"s too many for us to accommodate and defend; let them do what they are best at."
"Even old granny"s coming, all looking for British bayonets to protect them from the Lord of the Golden Foot," O"Neill said.
"That"s why w
