Play up! play up! and play the game!
The papers covering this period are fragmentary — his Lordship's journal entries are terse, the hand unsteady. What follows has been assembled as faithfully as the Editor is able.
The Editor notes that the papers from this period employ familiar forms throughout — his Lordship's hand refers consistently to C.C.C. and Archie where a more formal record might give Professor Caractacus Clarke and Sergeant Archibald Tomlinson respectively. The cult name presents a further difficulty: the papers render it as Hajaar Yuva, a phonetic approximation of the Hindi, where other recovered documents give the fuller form Ek Hazaar Jawaan — the Thousand Young. The Editor has preserved the usage of the papers in each case.
The men pushed through the jungle toward the bungalow, hearing the cracking of gun-fire ahead. His Lordship recognised the report of the recently decommissioned Snider-Enfield. The military veterans amongst the party remembered all too well the devastating effects of that weapon, and his Lordship hoped it had not fallen into the wrong hands.
Crazed natives then leapt from the trees at his Lordship and Amin, who fortunately spotted the attempted ambush and were able to discharge their longarms into the cads. The men pressed on, the elephant train following, where the stalwart C.C.C. was maintaining watch to the flanks and the rear. One lunatic leapt from the trees into the Professor's howdah and attempted to wrench his shotgun from him — the Professor was able to break free and empty a barrel of his trusty weapon into the blackguard, blowing him off the back of the elephant.
The Clearing
The Sepoys moved into the clearing, forming a chevron. Corpses were strewn about and the stench of death was all pervading. The Captain, who had assumed command, ordered the men forward and toward the bungalow, Amin still carrying the wounded servant. Both Archie and Amin spotted muzzle-flashes in the trees as they crossed, but felt they had no alternative but to keep moving towards the safety of the bungalow. Archie heard the rifle report as the ball whistled harmlessly past him, but the noble Amin heard nothing — instantly journeying to the next world as the .577 lump of lead smashed into his head.
Grieving would have to come later. The Captain ordered two Sepoys to carry the wounded servant and Amin to the bungalow. This was too much for Archie, who broke ranks and sprinted to the building. The Captain hammered on the barricaded door, while his Lordship leapt through one of the broken windows, where he was to discover Leighton's valet, Akshan. After a brief exchange with his Lordship, Akshan ran to help Ravi Kumar, Leighton's Muslim cook, who had already started to unbarricade the door. The men were now safe, at least for a while.
Within the Bungalow
After brief introductions, a survey of the house; a weapons, ammunition, food and water audit; and a military debriefing by the retired Colonel Montgomery; the party began discussing a military strategy — but not before his Lordship insisted that his former batman was laid in state somewhere appropriate, and not on the damned library floor.
The Professor, meanwhile, encouraged the Captain to check his mail, while discreetly enquiring of Akshan what he knew about the attackers, as he could tell the trusty valet knew more than the Colonel did when his Lordship asked the question. The attackers worshipped the Black Goat and called themselves Hajaar Yuva - The Thousand Young. Akshan believed the siege was revenge for Leighton's attack on the grove and the stealing of their artefact — and that the Captain would never be safe until the cult was wiped out.
The Captain shared the contents of his letter and what it enclosed with Lord Arbuthnott — the Prophecy of Assadin. The Captain, prompted by the letter, started searching through his notebooks; the Professor taking what turned out to be Leighton's Himalayan travel journal, in which he detailed a disturbing, and clearly deranged, episode in a cave. The Professor felt it best not to share the journal or to relate its contents to the Captain, at least not until the morning, and the Captain took his sage advice. The party also discovered the following amongst the bungalow's effects:
- An empty notebook with the monogram S.H. on the cover, containing a receipt from a curiosity shop in Simla, and a hand-drawn map
- The Indian travel journal of Professor George Wyndham
The Stables
At this point the men picketed at the north of the bungalow reported sounds of movement near the stables. The Captain, his Lordship, Sergeant Tomlinson, and two Sepoys went to investigate. They discovered two members of Hajaar Yuva who had lit a fire against the stable wall. The Sepoys immediately dispensed with the fanatics, and Archie ran to the well to get a bucket of water which he threw on the fire, immediately extinguishing it.
Three more cultists leapt from the trees. Archie engaged one with his hallowed nightstick — the very one that had seen to the Piper — the Captain firing his Webley into one of the curs, his Lordship dispensing one with his Lee-Metford. As more Hajaar Yuva leapt from the trees, the Captain ran to defend Archie, cutting down the dog with his sabre. One of the Sepoys was overwhelmed and savagely cut down by a cultist, before his Lordship gunned the murderous cad down with his revolver.
The tide was turning — visibility reduced now the fire was extinguished, a man down, and the alarming noise of gun-fire coming from the bungalow — and the men had no choice but to retreat. His Lordship fired one last shot before the group ran back to the bungalow, with no alternative but to leave the body of Sepoy Goreal Taksande to the depredations of the cult.
These papers extend to the evening of Tuesday, the fourteenth of November, 1893; the Collective barricaded within Leighton's bungalow, their losses grievous, and the jungle without them still far from quiet.
— The Editor
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