'Run, Charlie, run!'
There was a side-alley into which Charlie, who was nearest, might have escaped, but he hesitated, standing white-faced, while Burnes jumped between him and the charging Afghans. Sekundar had his Khyber knife out now; he parried a blow from the leader, closed with him, and shouted again:
'Get out, Charlie! Cut, man!'
And then, as Charlie still hesitated, petrified, Burnes yelled in an agonised voice:
'Run, baby, please! Run!'
They were the last words he spoke. A Khyber knife swept down on his shoulder and he reeled back, blood spouting; then the mob was on top of him, hacking and striking. He must have taken half a dozen mortal cuts before he even hit the ground. Charlie gave a frenzied cry, and ran towards him; they cut him down before he had gone three steps.
I saw all this, because it happened in seconds; then I had my own hands full. I jumped over the man I had hit and dived for the alley, but a Ghazi was there first, screaming and slashing at me. I had my own sword out, and turned his cut, but the way was blocked and the mob was howling at my heels. I turned, slashing frantically, and they gave back an instant; I got my back to the nearest wall as they surged in again, the knives flashed before my eyes. I thrust at the snarling faces and heard the screams and curses. And then something hit me a dreadful blow in the stomach and I went down before the rush of bodies; a foot stamped on my hip, and even as I thought, oh, sweet Jesus, this is death, I had one fleeting memory of being trampled in the scrimmage in the Schoolhouse match. Something smashed against my head, and I waited for the horrible bite of sharp steel. And then I remember nothing more.(14)
When I came to my senses I was lying on a wooden floor, my cheek against the boards. My head seemed to be opening and shutting with pain, and when I tried to raise it I found that my face was stuck to the boards with my own dried blood, so that I cried out with the pain as it pulled free.
The first thing I noticed was a pair of boots, of fine yellow leather, on the floor about two yards away; above them were pyjamy trousers and the skirt of a black coat, and then a green sash and two lean hands hooked into it by the thumbs, and above all, a dark, grinning face with pale grey eyes under a spiked helmet. I knew the face, from my visit to Mogala, and even in my confused state I thought: this is bad news. It was my old enemy, Gul Shah.
He sauntered over and kicked me in the ribs. I tried to speak, and the first words that came out, in a hoarse whisper, were: 'I'm alive.'
'For the moment,' said Gul Shah. He squatted down beside me, smiling his wolfs smile. 'Tell me, Flashman: what does it feel like to die?'
'What d'ye mean?' I managed to croak.
He jerked his thumb. 'Out in the street yonder: you were down, with the knives at your neck, and only my timely intervention saved you from the same fate as Sekundar Burnes. They cut him to pieces, by the way. Eighty- five pieces, to be exact: they have been counted, you see. But you, Flashman, must have known what it was like to die in that moment. Tell me: I am curious.'
I guessed there was no good coming from these questions; the evil look of the brute made my skin crawl. But I thought it best to answer.
'It was bloody horrible,' says I.
He laughed with his head back, rocking on his heels, and others laughed with him. I realised there were perhaps half a dozen others -
Ghazis, mostly - in the room with us. They came crowding round to leer at me, and if anything they looked even nastier than Gul Shah.
When he had finished laughing he leaned over me. 'It can be more horrible,' says he, and spat in my face. He reeked of garlic.
I tried to struggle up, demanding to know why he had saved me, and he stood up and kicked me again. 'Yes, why?' he mocked me. I couldn't fathom it; I didn't want to. But I thought I'd pretend to act as though it were all for the best.
'I'm grateful to you, sir,' says I, 'for your timely assistance. You shall be rewarded - all of you - and ...'
'Indeed we will,' says Gul Shah. 'Stand him up.'
They dragged me to my feet, twisting my arms behind me. I told them loudly that if they took me back to the cantonment they would be handsomely paid, and they roared with laughter.
'Any paying the British do will be in blood,' says Gul Shah.
'Yours first of all.'
'What for, damn you?' I shouted.
'Why do you suppose I stopped the Ghazis from quartering you?'
says he. 'To preserve your precious skin, perhaps? To hand you as a peace offering to your people?' He stuck his face into mine. 'Have you forgotten a dancing girl called Narreeman, you pig's bastard? Just another slut, to the likes of you, to be defiled as you chose, and then forgotten. You are all the same, you feringhee swine; you think you can take our women, our country, and our honour and trample them all under foot. We do not matter, do we? And when all is done, when our women are raped and our treasure stolen, you can laugh and shrug your shoulders, you misbegotten pariah curs!' He was screaming at me, with froth on his lips.
'I meant her no harm,' I was beginning, and he struck me across the face. He stood there, glaring at me and panting. He made an effort and mastered himself.
'She is not here,' he said at last, 'or I would give you to her and she would give you an eternity of suffering before you died. As it is, we shall do our poor best to accommodate you.'
'Look,' says I. 'Whatever I've done, I beg your pardon for it. I didn't know you cared for the wench, I swear. I'll make amends, any way you like. I'm a rich man, a really rich man.' I went on to offer him whatever he wanted in ransom and as compensation to the girl, and it seemed to quiet him for a minute.
'Go on,' says he, when I paused. 'This is good to listen to.'
I would have done, but just the cruel sneer told me he was mocking me, and I fell silent.
'So, we are where we began,' says he. 'Believe me, Flashman, I would make you die a hundred deaths, but time is short. There are other throats besides yours, and we are impatient people. But we shall make your passing as memorable as possible, and you shall tell me again what it is like to die. Bring him along.'
