Whose Business Is to Die Read Free Page B

spent months in Andalusia working with the partisans along the coast, carried ashore and retrieved each time by the Navy. One night Williams had taken part in a cutting-out expedition, capturing privateers and merchantmen from an enemy harbour. As a result, he later found himself the surprised recipient of six hundred and twelve pounds, seventeen shillings and thruppence prize money, paid into his account at the regimental agents of Greenwood, Cox, and Company, agents to the 106th as they were to half the army. It was only this fortunate event which permitted him to accept the invitation to become a staff officer. More than half had gone on equipping himself for the field, since Lisbon prices were grossly inflated after four years of war and with the entire army wintering near the city.
    ‘It appears the simplest solution to my want,’ Williams said in his defence. ‘There is no prospect of purchasing a replacement for some time.’
    Baynes chuckled, his face bright scarlet. ‘Clear, reasonable thought,’ he said. ‘The world is often so unfair when it dismisses the intellect of soldiers!’
    Williams bowed as far as it was possible in the saddle.
    ‘Yet, though as a mere civilian I may be mistaken,’ Baynes continued, ‘is it not the rule that captured horses are to be offered for sale to the commissaries, so that the entire army and the wider cause may benefit from their capture?’
    That was the rule, and although Hanley’s expression betrayed his lack of concern for such regulation, Williams had feared that this would prove an obstacle and so had hoped to avoid anyone too senior from finding out about the business. The justification that the rule was often ignored, and that a horse taken from the foe was the only plunder considered acceptable for an officer to take, seemed weak.
    ‘It is for the good of the service,’ he ventured, disliking the pomposity of his claim and hoping that the unmilitary Baynes would not pursue the issue.
    ‘I have no doubt of it, so perhaps we should leave it at that, and leave you, my young friend, with the more pressing problem of dividing an unwilling Frenchman from his horse. Of course,’ he went on, ‘though I am no real judge, I am told that our own cavalry officers ride finer horses than the French. Indeed, it is said their comrades garrisoned in France write to friends asking them to capture such a beast, with the promise of rich reward. Perhaps for the pure good of the service you should look elsewhere?’
    Williams grinned, and a few moments later Baynes chuckled again to demonstrate that it was – almost certainly – a witticism.
    ‘I doubt in the circumstances that the Army will be much inclined to examine the details of your acquisition, since part of our purpose today is to arrange theft on a far grander scale. Damn the man, will he not sit still for a moment!’ This last waspresumably directed at General Long and the light cavalry, who had set off forward again, just as they were coming up to them.
    Hanley waved a hand at the corporal in charge of their escort to show that they would keep at a walk and not race forward to catch up.
    ‘Don’t want the horses tired,’ he explained to Williams.
    ‘Indeed not, indeed not,’ Baynes mumbled. ‘And no doubt they will halt again soon enough.’ He stared at Williams for a moment and then turned to Hanley. ‘Your friend is not the most curious of fellows, is he, William? We confess a conspiracy to rob and he says nothing. Too caught up with plotting his own act of brigandage, no doubt.’
    ‘It is for the good of the service,’ Captain William Hanley agreed.
    ‘Since manners or disinterest prevent you from asking,’ Baynes began, ‘I shall declare that our interest is with cannon – at least one of our interests. Does that stir your curiosity?’
    ‘The French siege train?’ Williams ventured.
    Baynes turned back to Hanley and gave a nod of exaggerated approval. ‘Your Mr Williams may not be inclined