“I never remember such a succession of petty robberies before,” said Colonel Graham. “The natives must be in a very unsettled state.”
“I’m not sorry these things have happened,” returned Dick. “In fact, I’m glad of it.”
Colonel Graham glanced at him. “What have you got in your head?” he asked.
“Simply this. I suppose you believe, as I do, that the thief gets in by climbing over the wall, while the watchman is busy guarding the gateway and never thinks that there is any other means of entering?”
“That’s my idea. In a climate like this mud-brick is bound to go pretty soon if it isn’t looked after, and for years the rain has washed it down into these rubbish-heaps, till they are as good as so many flights of steps. What with the grass and bushes growing all about, it’s as easy as possible to get in. I could do it myself.”
“Then you agree that it would be as well to make it harder? I propose that we call a club meeting and invite subscriptions for the purpose of putting the walls into proper repair. Otherwise we shall soon have the place down on our heads.”
“But that sort of thing will take a long time to organise.”
“It needn’t, since it’s only to keep the natives from thinking there’s anything up. So far as I can see, there’s no particular reason why you and I shouldn’t head the subscription list with a thousand rupees each—so that the most pressing work may be begun at once—or why that two thousand rupees shouldn’t last out better than such a sum ever did before.”
“Good! Are we to take the young fellows into our confidence?”
“Runcorn may as well know all about it. A sapper will be useful in deciding what it’s possible to do in the time. Happily he and the canal people have kept the wall overlooking the water in tolerable repair. As for the other sides, we must clear away the rubbish from the foot of the walls, and build up the parapets where the bricks have weathered away. The bushes must go, naturally, and the ramparts be made a fairly safe promenade—for the ladies, of course. The tower stairs are awfully dangerous, and it will be quite natural to have them seen to, and the floors and loopholes may as well be looked after while we are about it, though we shall never get a satisfactory flanking fire without rebuilding the whole thing. I shall take it upon myself to present the place with a new gate—not obtrusively martial in appearance, but with a certain reserve strength about it. My wife will think me a terrible Vandal for spoiling the beautiful ruin her father left behind him, but it’s obvious that the chaukidar will be able to look after the place better when there’s a gate to shut.”