The Unbelievers by Alastair Sim

they went through the Haymarket tunnel more steam and smoke leaked in than out. He coughed and wiped a fleck of soot from his eye as the train pulled into Haymarket Station.
    â€œDid you find anything out, sir?” asked the sergeant.
    â€œPardon?”
    â€œFrom your private enquiries?”
    Allerdyce blinked hard, his eye still watering from the soot.
    â€œNo, Sergeant. It was a false lead.”
    â€œBad luck, sir.”
    Allerdyce wiped the black fleck from his finger onto his handkerchief.
    â€œInspector Jarvis caught sight of us in the bar at the Timberbush,” he said.
    â€œThat’s very unfortunate, sir.”
    â€œHe says he was there on police business. He assured me he would say nothing to the Chief.”
    â€œThat’s good, for what it’s worth, sir.”
    â€œYou don’t trust his word?”
    â€œI would trust the word of any man who had earned it,” said McGillivray. “It’s no secret, sir, that Sergeant Baird’s dismissal has caused some discontent downstairs. We didn’t see any cause for Mr Jarvis to inform on him. Some of the lads think Mr Jarvis was just trying to ingratiate himself with the Chief.”
    â€œI’m sorry. How is Baird?”
    â€œQuite low, sir. He’s lost his pension and hasn’t found employment. The lads downstairs are all helping his family – we’re each putting a little money aside for them each week, but it’s barely enough to put food on their table.”
    â€œI hadn’t realised. A little trade union.”
    â€œWe can’t call it that, sir, on pain of dismissal.”
    â€œI understand.”
    â€œBaird and his family would have been evicted from their rooms if they hadn’t received an anonymous donation.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œAnd may I say, sir, that the lads are very grateful for that anonymous help and proud to serve with you.”
    The train pulled out of the station and rattled and swayed over points, the cords of the window-blinds slapping against the glass.
    â€œIt’s a bit rough, sir.”
    â€œI know. I doubt the railway company spend anything on maintenance.”
    â€œNo, I mean about Baird, sir. It was the same in the Army – good men left to shift for themselves after years of loyal service. There were seven VCs awarded in India to comrades in the Sutherland Highlanders. I know that one of those men is in the workhouse, and another has turned to crime.”
    A strong yeasty smell cut through the mellow aroma of Allerdyce’s pipe smoke as the train passed a brewery. The smell faded as the train passed briefly behind houses and an engine-shed before reaching a patchwork of market gardens, fields, farmsteads, and the big houses which titled families kept for their visits to the capital.
    â€œI heard that your Victoria Cross was for saving a man’s life, Sergeant.”
    â€œYes, sir. Though I also had to take a man’s life in the action, sir. It’s something I hope not to have to do again.”
    â€œLucknow, wasn’t it? What happened?”
    â€œIt was a day from hell, sir. I still wake up sweating, thinking I’m back there.”
    â€œI’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me.”
    â€œThere’s no harm in talking about it, sir. I’ll tell you what I can remember.
    â€œWe’d opened a breach through a wall into the mutineers’ fortress. Captain Monro led us through it. As we came forward a horde of sepoys rushed at us waving sabres and firing rifles. Others fired down from every wall and rooftop, or jumped down on us with swords and knives.”
    â€œWere you wounded?”
    â€œI was grazed by a spent bullet. I saw Captain Monro fall in front of me, and the hole in the back of his tunic from which the bullet had exited.
    â€œAs he fell I saw a sepoy holding his rifle over the captain, about to bayonet him. I took my sword, thrust it hard into his stomach and ripped it