Chapter 14

Arriving at the unit just after 0730 hrs, there was quite a surprise waiting for me. First, a good number of the students were there and looking at the surprise. Secondly, the cooks were there and making a late morning meal for the men present. Lastly there was what everyone was looking at.

A new building had appeared, apparently overnight. It was located at the far end of our building from the road and was centered on the middle barracks and about 12 feet from it. It was a one story masonry building and was stuccoed on the exterior surfaces, and it had a large, steep Thai style roof of red ceramic roofing tiles. Lieutenant Chatchai called the men in front of the building to attention when I appeared.

"Chief Ranger Trainer, this building appeared overnight. I'm sure that it wasn't here last evening when I returned from town," he told me as I approached the building. I gave the men 'at ease' before reaching into the lower right front pocket of my uniform shirt, as I had felt a sudden increase in weight there as I approached the building. I removed a set of iron keys that I was sure would fit the locks on the doors to the building.

"I believe that these keys which I received will fit these locks," I said as I approached the double doors and their locks. The locks opened to the keys, and I pushed the doors in to be greeted by another even more impressive surprise: weapons, or more precisely carbines in the present vernacular. Racks and racks of them and apparently all the same style.

"Lieutenant, come with me to inspect the contents of this building. Sergeant Chuang, keep the men away from here while we are inside. Have them eat when the meal is ready. We'll bring out several samples of the contents when we have inspected everything," I ordered before the Lieutenant and I entered the building. We could hear Sergeant Chuang issuing orders through the open doors.

Lieutenant Chatchai just stood there for a time inside the doors slack jawed and staring at the weapons. I had already started counting. There were ten carbines to a rack and there were ten racks, so there were 100 weapons here, but the weapons area only occupied about half of the building. There was an interior door at the far end of the weapons area and a third key on the key ring.

On opening the interior door, we discovered that the room contained barrels of black powder, wooden boxes sealed with wax that were marked for .577 caliber paper cartridges, and other boxes containing tins of percussion caps, boxes of treated cartridge paper, boxes of lead minie balls, and bars of pure lead to be melted into more hollow base minie balls using the iron gang type bullet molds next to them.

"Where did all of this come from?" Chatchai asked when we had returned to the weapons area and had locked the door to the powder room.

"I have no idea, but perhaps these weapons can tell us something," I told him.

"Tell us something?" he asked in a confused voice.

"Certainly, weapons are always marked by their manufacturer and also often by or for the owner," I told him before adding, "this many weapons, all of the same pattern, weren't made for individual sale, or if they were, it had to be an individual with his own army," I told him.

I pulled several weapons from the racks and began examining them near the entry door to have the most light. The lock of each weapon was clearly marked 'W. Corbett' in small letters. The barrels were all marked 'Joseph B. P. Bourne'. One weapon was also stamped 'British East India Company' on the barrel. Further examination of a number of the weapons showed that a few of them were marked for BEIC, but the majority weren't. Also none of the weapons were marked with the broad arrow of the British Government.

"It would appear that these weapons were made by the English firm of Joseph Bourne using locks made by W. Corbett. Some of them are marked for the British East India Company but most aren't.

"This would indicate to me at least that Bourne made a number of these for the British East India Company, and that some of these may just be leftovers. The remainder appear to be from the same production run as they are of the same quality and construction. Perhaps Bourne intended to sell them to other customers in India," I told him.

"What other customers?" Captain Prawit asked. He had arrived in the last few minutes and had heard part of our conversation.

"There are a number of local rulers in India who have large security forces," I told him.

"Are these weapons reliable if they were made for use by the Indians?" the Captain asked.

"Yes, Bourne is a well known manufacture, and these weapons appear to be similar to the British Pattern 53 rifle, except they are carbines with 30 inch barrels, but they have the same three groove rifling. The boxes of cartridges in the other room are marked .577 caliber which is what the size of the opening in these barrels appears to be.

"The stocks appear to be walnut, the furniture is brass. There are only two iron bands holding the barrel to the stock instead of three for the rifle which has a longer barrel. There is a metal ramrod and a bar near the muzzle for the attachment of a bayonet. There is a fixed front sight and a rear sight with two flip-up leaves for longer distances. The stock also has front and rear sling swivels. I didn't see any bayonets or slings when we inspected the weapons area.

"In the other room there are powder, caps, lead, molds and prepared cartridges. It would appear that we will be able to begin weapons training shortly," I finished. The Captain and the Lieutenant had both been inspecting a number of the weapons while I explained about them.

"These weapons all appear to be new!" the Captain said in surprise after inspecting a number of the carbines.

"Yes, all of the ones that I inspected appeared to be new. They will require a thorough cleaning before they can be used to remove the shipping grease," I told him which brought up additional questions.

"Will we be able to obtain cleaning supplies for the weapons and also tools for taking them apart?" I asked.

"Cleaning supplies, yes," the Captain answered, "but I am not sure about tools. What type of tools?"

"Nipple wrenches, screwdrivers, and tools to remove the bands holding the barrel to the stock," I told him before adding, "Later we will need tools to take the locks apart also."

"Maybe, I will need to speak to Prompan about what is available," he told me.

"When the men have finished their morning meal, I will demonstrate how to carry, use and care for the carbines as much as I can without taking them apart. Tomorrow there will be a more thorough demonstration if we can obtain tools," I told both of them.

"Yes, the men will be eager to see these weapons. They are the finest weapons in camp and the other units are sure to be jealous," the Lieutenant said with pride.

"That may mean that we will need armed guards on this building day and night," the Captain replied with a frown.

"That would take men away from necessary training. Perhaps a guard at night would be sufficient," I told them, but privately was sure that the Amulets wouldn't allow anyone in here to steal these weapons or their ammunition.

There was great excitement when the three of us emerged from the new armory building. Some of the men had seen what was inside when the doors were opened, and there appeared to have been a great deal of discussion about what they saw during their meal, which was now over.

Captain Prawit called all of the men to attention and had them form up in their regular platoon formations. The formations were a bit ragged as not all of the men were present since it was a day off. The men were consolidated into two platoons and were moved to the open ground floor of the third barracks. When the men were seated in a relatively normal instruction formation on the barracks floor, Captain Prawit, Lieutenant Chatchai, and I brought out a number of the new carbines to pass around for the men to look at while I explained about them, their ammunition, and how they functioned.

During this explanation, there was a sudden bright flash of light which was accompanied by a loud clap of thunder. It startled everyone since there had been no signs of rain when we had started, but it was the rainy season and this wasn't entirely unheard of. However, it appeared to have been right in our unit area, and Captain Prawit and I rushed toward the new armory building to insure that it hadn't been struck by lightning and wouldn't be exploding with all of that ammunition in the second room. We had only gone a few feet when we saw the man lying on the ground, and he was not one of our men. Our men had followed us, and they also saw the man on the ground.

"Wait here while the Captain and I examine this man in case there is another lightning strike," I told our men to keep them back out of the way, but the Captain looked over at me with a questioning expression before moving.

On checking the man, we quickly determined that he was alive but unconscious.

"What happened to him?" the Captain asked, looking around to see where the lightning had struck in a nervous manner.

"The Amulets knocked him out," I told him confidently in a quiet voice, and my amulet warmed up as I said it. "It would appear that we may need only a superficial guard on the building at night. The Amulets will not be stolen from," I assured him to renewed warmth from my amulet.

Our men had moved closer on seeing that there was no more lightning and several of them recognized the man.

"That man is a ka-moy-ee (thief). All of those in the other units here know not to trust him," several of the men told us.

"He should be punished for trying to steal our weapons," several other men demanded. I just smiled at them.

"We do not need to punish him and diminish the merit that we made yesterday. He was obviously sent here by others, and when they learn that he has failed, I am sure that they will meter out a punishment for him and will diminish whatever merit they might have," I told them appealing to their Buddhist faith in such matters. Many of the men were smiling upon hearing my remarks. The man was also beginning to come around.

"Bring some water for him to drink," I directed next, and a bowl of water was brought over from the barracks. I gave it to the man to drink.

"NEVER return to our area. The Amulets will not be stolen from," I told him when he had finished the water. "The next one who comes here to take anything will not be treated so leniently by them," I finished.

On getting to his feet following that, he hobbled away as best he could with his left arm hanging down and unusable. I was sure that he didn't consider his treatment by the Amulets to be all that lenient. My men had fallen silent at the mention of the Amulets.

"Chief Trainer, are the weapons for us to have and use?" several men wanted to know immediately following the man's departure.

"Yes, the weapons are safe to use by all of the men during training and also after you graduate. The Amulets know who all of you are, and that you are authorized to have and use the weapons. They can keep track of all of you," I informed them to a very warm amulet.

"So many?" several men asked looking around at those around them.

"Certainly, the Amulets protect all of the women dedicated to them all over Siam. Do you think that a few more men would be a problem for them?" I asked with a smile.

"No, probably not," Captain Prawit answered after a few seconds, as all of the men had been quiet as they reflected on what I had said. The carbines that we had been using were quickly collected following that, replaced in the armory, and the doors locked.

"Today is still a holiday. Tomorrow, we return to training and there will be much to do," I reminded the men. I then collected my horse from where one of the men had taken him to graze on the now growing grass, and returned to our house and Chanthra for the remainder of the day.

Chanthra was there when I reached the house, having no classes today.

"Were those what you have been waiting for?" she asked as I arrived on the terrace.

"Yes, without them, it would have been difficult to continue the training. We will proceed tomorrow, but there will be a lot of work for the men to do before we can fire the weapons safely here," I told her.

"Are things so bad at the camp?" she asked in surprise.

"The Siamese Army is not currently interested in precision shooting as they still use the volley firing technique, I will be training the men to fire at specific targets when they fire, whether individually or as a group. It requires a different kind of firing range and mind set than the other technique does. There will be much work required to prepare the firing range for that," I told her. We spent a very enjoyable remainder of the day at home just relaxing together.

Arriving at the unit just prior to 0600 hrs. the next morning for PT, I found a number of the men hung over from partying yesterday and perhaps even the day before for some of them. We had PT as scheduled, but I shortened the run in consideration of those hung over.