Sharpe's Challenge Page #2

this past six months.

We need someone who knows the country

to determine what's become of him.

And, if the worst has befallen,

to see his mission through.

You want me to go back to India?

This uprising must be stopped, Sharpe,

by whatever means.

One resourceful man may achieve

what an army cannot.

Your Grace, my soldiering days came to an end

on the ridge of Mont St John.

I am grateful of the opinion

in which you hold me

but a man's luck only holds so long.

Damn it, Sharpe. The rat is in the bottle.

No one else will do.

India is a very tinderbox

that waits upon the merest spark.

Should Khande Rao's resistance prove successful,

our days as the dominant power

in that country would be numbered.

That may be so, my lord.

But what happens in India is the business

of men of influence and great import

and not of a farmer.

I regret I must respectfully decline.

That is your last word?

I'm sorry I cannot prevail upon you

to change your mind, Colonel.

Mrs Harper, my apologies

for having kept you waiting.

-Ramona.

-Richard, thank God.

An acquaintance of yours, Sharpe?

A good friend.

Mrs Harper's husband

is the Irish sergeant of whom I spoke.

What are you doing here, lass?

Is Patrick with you?

Alas, Sharpe,

Mrs Harper's husband is also our missing agent.

You're Patrick's only hope.

You will find him, won't you, Richard?

(CAMELS BRAYING)

(CHATTERING IN HINDI)

I'm assured we'll be on our way again

presently, ma'am.

It's a poor bloody spot for a tea party, Captain.

Bandit country.

And not one picquet posted along the track.

Some of us might call that reckless.

And you're whom, sir,

to be giving orders to an officer?

Come, sir, state your business.

My name is Richard Sharpe

and my business is with General Burroughs.

You're off to join his 3rd Army

on the Northern Plain, are you not?

You have experience of India, Mr Sharpe?

Experience?

Aye, some.

I was at Srirangapattam and Assaye.

Then you should know, Mr Sharpe,

this is friendly territory.

Any threat from Khande Rao's Pindari

lies 30 miles...

-You mean the Battle of Assaye?

-Aye, that were it.

There were no riflemen here then.

You wear the green jacket of the 95th,

do you not, Mr Sharpe?

I do, ma'am.

And you're right.

There were no riflemen here then.

I was at the time a private soldier in the 33rd.

Sharpe.

Good God, I mean, not the ranker

that saved Wellington's life?

Well, it once fell to me to help him out. Aye.

Then it's an honour, sir. Indeed an honour.

Captain Lawrence, sir.

And this is Miss Celia Burroughs,

the general's daughter.

Ma'am.

Unless I'm much mistaken,

it's rightly Colonel Sharpe, isn't it?

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