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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Galahad of the Creeks; The Widow Lamport, by 
+S. (Sidney) Levett-Yeats
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Galahad of the Creeks; The Widow Lamport
+
+Author: S. (Sidney) Levett-Yeats
+
+Release Date: December 14, 2011 [EBook #38306]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GALAHAD OF CREEKS; WIDOW LAMPORT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=Kv8MAAAAYAAJ
+
+   2. the diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+                                                  Appleton's
+                                               Town and Country
+                                                    Library
+
+                                                    No. 214
+
+
+
+
+
+                       A GALAHAD OF THE CREEKS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           _NINTH EDITION_.
+
+                        The Honour of Savelli.
+
+                         BY S. LEVETT YEATS.
+
+                 12mo. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+"Unsurpassably written, full of matter of historical value, and in
+excellence of composition, clearness of description and delineation of
+character is assuredly one of the first in the field."--_Chicago
+Journal_.
+
+"The story is full of romance, life, and action.... One of those which
+demand reading through at a sitting."--_San Francisco Chronicle_.
+
+"A picturesque and exciting panorama of the most brilliant and
+eventful period of old Italian history."--_London Times_.
+
+"The book is a first-rate piece of work, and holds the reader
+enchained from the sensational outset to the very last page."--_London
+Athenæum_.
+
+"Stirring incidents and adventures follow so closely upon each other's
+heels that the reader becomes fascinated. It is a story to be read and
+reread for the mere pleasure the reading gives."--_New York Evening
+World_.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+                  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                       A GALAHAD OF THE CREEKS
+
+                              *   *   *
+
+                          THE WIDOW LAMPORT.
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                           S. LEVETT-YEATS
+
+                   AUTHOR OF THE HONOUR OF SAVELLI
+
+
+
+
+
+                               NEW YORK
+                       D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+                                 1897
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           COPYRIGHT, 1897,
+                      BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+                      A GALAHAD OF THE CREEKS.
+
+       I.--The coming of the Woon.
+
+      II.--A dinner à deux.
+
+     III.--Father Fragrance limes a twig.
+
+      IV.--Ruys Smalley.
+
+       V.--"Furiis agitates amor."
+
+      VI.--Anthony Pozendine speaks up.
+
+     VII.--The ruby bracelet.
+
+    VIII.--The Sirkar's salt.
+
+      IX.--His lady's gage.
+
+       X.--An atonement.
+
+      XI.--The patience of Habakkuk Smalley.
+
+     XII.--The episode of Li Fong.
+
+    XIII.--An overreach.
+
+     XIV.--Pallida mors.
+
+      XV.--The passing of the Woon.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+                          THE WIDOW LAMPORT.
+
+       I.--At the door of the tabernacle.
+
+      II.--A cup of tea.
+
+     III.--A billet-doux.
+
+      IV.--Yes.
+
+       V.--Mrs. Bunny Doubts.
+
+      VI.--Master Edward Bunny.
+
+     VII.--Dungaree's Belt.
+
+    VIII.--Cast out from the fold.
+
+      IX.--At The Divan Exchange.
+
+       X.--Exit Manuel.
+
+      XI.--The happy pair.
+
+     XII.--The devil at work.
+
+    XIII.--Husband and wife.
+
+     XIV.--John Galbraith goes.
+
+      XV.--The glory departs.
+
+     XVI.--An account balanced.
+
+    XVII.--From the choir of the Holy Innocents.
+
+
+
+
+
+                       A GALAHAD OF THE CREEKS.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                       THE COMING OF THE WOON.
+
+              The good ship steered toward the East,
+                To the East, o'er the salt sea foam;
+              And years rolled by, and time grew old,
+                But she nevermore came home.
+
+                                        _Voyage of the Tobias_.
+
+
+When a man has taken a first-class degree, when he has won his blue,
+and has passed high into the Indian Civil Service without the
+wet-nursing of a crammer, it might be hazarded that he is worth
+something. One might go further and picture out his future career--how
+he would be a prop of Israel; how, step by step, he would rise until
+the Honourable Council enshrouded him; and how, after a life of useful
+work, he would, like Oliver, desire more, and drop into being the bore
+of "the House," or into the warmest corner of the "Oriental," and
+dream over the fire of the time when he was his Honour the Lieutenant
+Governor; but the lion is very old now--let him doze.
+
+Peregrine Jackson had taken the first steps to qualify for this part
+in the tragedy of life, for this forging of the links of that
+mysterious chain of which we know not the beginning and may never know
+the end until, as to Longinus, the gates of immortality are opened
+unto us. But the tall, straight, broad-shouldered young Englishman was
+thinking of none of these things at present. He had elected to serve
+in Burma, and he was now posted as assistant commissioner, practically
+Governor of Pazobin, which is in lower Burma, and lies near the sea on
+a slimy creek of the Irawadi. He leaned over the gunwale of the river
+steamer that was bearing him to his destination, and the skipper, the
+sleeves of his gray-flannel shirt rolled up to his elbows, stood
+beside him and pointed out Pazobin, which lay about two miles off,
+clinging like a limpet to the river bank. Now, a Burman river steamer
+can walk, and at twelve knots an hour two miles would not take long to
+cover--in fact, the Woon had already whistled shrilly to announce her
+coming--a whistle that found a hundred echoes in the forest which
+fringed the banks, until it died away in fitful cadences in some
+unknown swamp. And let it be remembered that this is the country of
+the creeks. Here the Irawadi, whose source no man knoweth, comes down
+from its cradle of snow, past the tremendous defiles of Bhamo, through
+the whole length of that strange land from which the veil has only
+just been lifted, past cities and temples, until at last the mystery
+of waters spread out with a hundred thirsty throats toward the sea,
+and puddles its blue field with a muddy yellow far out, even to where
+the breakers hiss around Cape Negrais. Between the wide necks that
+stretch out to the sea the water has made for itself countless
+cuttings, through which it ebbs and flows sluggishly beneath the
+shadows of a primeval forest. The whistle of the steamer was answered
+by the dull boom of a signal gun, and the broad bosom of the creek was
+almost immediately dotted over with a vast number of small craft
+making their way toward the incoming mail boat. "There's the pagoda,"
+and the Mudlark, as captains of Burman river steamers are irreverently
+called, pointed to the gilded cupola which rose high above the
+feathers of the bamboos that surrounded it. "There's the jetty," he
+added, "and there's the courthouse. You'll know more about that
+presently. Wonder how you'll like sitting there ten hours a day? And,
+by George, there's the _nga-pe!_" "The what?" But as Jackson spoke, a
+puff of wind brought a decomposed odour to the steamer. It was
+overpowering, an all-pervading essence, and for a moment Peregrine
+forgot everything in a vain effort to beat off the evil with his
+pocket-handkerchief. "It's all right when you're used to it," mocked
+the captain, "and you mustn't turn up your nose at it, for that
+delicate condiment is the main source of revenue of your district.
+Wait till I take you up some day with a shipload on board! And now,
+your humble, I must be off."
+
+He vanished to attend to his duties, which to the non-professional
+onlooker appeared to consist principally of swinging his arms round
+like the sails of a windmill and using frightful language toward a
+person whom he called the _serang_. The fitful wind, changing at this
+time, relieved Jackson from the terrible odour, and allowed him to
+look with a somewhat despairing curiosity at his new home. Before him
+lay a fleet of small fishing craft and a single row of bathing
+machines on stilts. The latter were the houses of the inhabitants, and
+they were all built on piles. They were of the roughest possible
+description, but here and there a plutocrat had got some corrugated
+iron to make a roof with and to excite thereby the envy, malice, and
+hatred of his fellows. There was but one street, from the end of which
+the jetty projected into the river. Beyond this rose some larger
+buildings, the largest of which had been pointed out by the skipper as
+the courthouse. A little way inland towered the gilded spire of the
+pagoda, with its umbrella crest that swung slowly round in the breeze.
+The one street of the township was thoroughly alive. It seemed as if a
+swarm of butterflies was on the move in the bright sunshine.
+Everywhere there was the sheen of brilliant colour--red, yellow,
+electric blue, and that strange tint which is known to milliners as
+_sang de b[oe]uf_. The small boats surrounded the steamer, and,
+regardless of the danger of being swamped, recklessly jammed up
+against her. With few exceptions their occupants were either women or
+Chinamen. These latter exchanged joyous greetings with their
+compatriots on board, and, swarming up the ship's side, set vigorously
+to work preparing to land their consignments as soon as ever the
+steamer drifted alongside the jetty. The ladies followed almost as
+rapidly, and their agility and the skill which they displayed in
+preventing the too great exposure of shapely limbs was beyond all
+praise. The women had brought with them their peddling wares, and a
+brisk market was opened--sharks' teeth, an invaluable love philter,
+silks and fruits, and the nameless little wants of semicivilized life.
+One held high above her head a row of mutton chops impaled upon a
+bamboo skewer. "Excellent they are," she cried; "they have come from
+the fat sheep the mail brought for me all the way from Calcutta."
+
+Everybody was smoking, except the Chinamen and the man at the wheel,
+who were too busy. The Burman man was, however, so absorbed in the
+contemplation of his own dignity that he did nothing but smoke; the
+Burman woman, on the other hand, simply coaled herself with each whiff
+of the long green cheroot she sucked, and every puff inspired her with
+fresh energy for the driving of a bargain. Through all the maze of
+business, however, madam remained a very woman, and many an astute
+deal was lost as the joints of her armour were pierced by Ah-Sin's
+oily tongue or the open admiration in Loo-ga-lay's little eyes. They
+were now so close to the shore that Jackson could distinctly see the
+faces of the people and the medals on the breasts of the half company
+of Sikh police that were formed up on the jetty--a tribute of honour
+to him, as he found out subsequently. Two Europeans stood amid the
+crowd; in one, dressed in a police uniform, Peregrine recognised
+Hawkshawe, the district police officer, who, while nominally his
+second in command, was really to be Jackson's dry nurse in controlling
+his charge until he was fit to fly alone. This period of probation
+would be, of course, just as long or as short as Peregrine chose to
+make it, for a member of the Indian Civil Service is ordinarily
+hatched full-fledged--a diplomat, a magistrate, anything you will. In
+the other, who stood beside the police officer, Jackson, although new
+to the country, recognised the missionary. His unkempt beard and hair,
+his long clerical coat of raw silk, and the dejected appearance of his
+lean face, hall-marked him as such distinctly.
+
+The steamer had now come almost opposite the jetty. A light line, one
+end of which was attached to the hawser, was cleverly thrown out and
+as cleverly caught by a blue-bloused Lascar. The hawser was dragged to
+the shore to the accompaniment of a "hillee-haulee" chorus, and it
+surged through the water like an unwilling water boa being pulled to
+land. At length the end of the huge rope touched the bank, somebody
+jumped into the ooze and lifted it with both arms, somebody else
+twisted it deftly round a short stumpy pillar, and then, with a
+drumming of the donkey engine and an insistent hiss-hiss of the
+paddles, the steamer sidled slowly alongside the jetty until she
+almost touched it. In an instant the bridge was placed in position and
+a crowd that seemed all elbows met an invading army bent upon forcing
+its way on board, and there was a little trouble. With the aid of a
+fierce-looking sergeant, who used his cane freely, Hawkshawe made his
+way on deck, and after a brief greeting with the skipper came up to
+Peregrine.
+
+"You're Jackson, I suppose? I'm Hawkshawe."
+
+The two men shook hands and looked each other straight in the face.
+Each saw the other's strength. It was later on they noticed the loose
+rivets in each other's mail. After a few moments spent in desultory
+conversation, during which Jackson heard and replied to the usual
+question of how he liked the country, the two prepared to leave the
+ship, and Peregrine sought the skipper to say adieu.
+
+"Good-bye, captain."
+
+"Good-bye. The next time you come with me I'll have the _nga-pe_ all
+ready for you."
+
+They were over the bridge, the guard of honour had presented arms, and
+the Reverend Doctor Habakkuk Smalley, American missionary, was
+introduced. Dr. Smalley performed the feat of shaking hands, of
+mopping his face with a red handkerchief, and of asking Jackson if he
+had "got it" all at once.
+
+"Got it!" was the reply; "I should think we all did--got it nearly a
+mile up. It was most horrible!"
+
+Dr. Smalley groaned aloud, and stretched forth both hands in protest.
+"Sir," he began, but Hawkshawe interposed.
+
+"Excuse me for a moment, doctor, but I must introduce these people to
+the new king," and he led up the portly native treasury officer to the
+bewildered Jackson, who found himself compelled to make and to answer
+civil speeches, while he was wondering how he could have given
+offence. The presentations were rapidly brought to an end, and
+Hawkshawe urged a move toward breakfast, turning to include Dr.
+Smalley in the invitation; but the reverend gentleman was nowhere to
+be seen. He had stalked off in high dudgeon.
+
+"I've done something to offend Dr. Smalley; let me go after him and
+explain, if I can, though what it can be I can't guess," said Jackson.
+
+"I should think you have!" was the answer. "Fancy Smalley asking you
+his usual question about your certainty of your salvation, and only
+think of your reply!"
+
+"But I meant that fearful-smelling compound!"
+
+Hawkshawe's laugh pealed out loudly. "Well, if a man will speak of
+religion like the measles, he must expect to be misunderstood. But
+there is no use in saying anything now. I will square matters for you.
+Smalley is a very good fellow really, and you will get to like him
+and---- But you must be very hungry. My men will take your traps over
+to your own place, and you have to breakfast with me, and can then go
+on, if you like. Here is the trap. Jump in."
+
+After the cramped life of the river steamer, however, the traveller
+wished to stretch his limbs a little, and begged to be permitted to
+walk. To this Hawkshawe agreed with an inward curse, for walking
+exercise is hateful to the Anglo-Burmese. He will ride or drive
+anywhere, but the climate does not contemplate walking. It is not in
+the programme. An officious peon opened a huge umbrella over Jackson's
+head notwithstanding his protests, and a small procession was formed.
+This was increased to a very respectable size by the time they reached
+their destination, for most of the inhabitants of the place, having
+nothing better to do, attached themselves in a semiofficial manner
+to the party, and there was quite a crowd when, after a final
+leave-taking, Jackson and his host entered the house. It was a great
+pleasure to find that there were houses far back from the dreary
+little town on the river bank. It was disheartening to think that one
+had to live amid the malodorous mud and slime, and it was equally
+cheering to find instead of this a trim garden and a fantastically
+pretty little house, with a breakfast table set out in a shady
+veranda, which overlooked a lawn as green as emerald, upon which two
+little fox terriers were chasing each other in joyous play, to the
+detriment of the turf but to their own great good.
+
+"You may consider yourself fairly installed now," said Hawkshawe, "and
+after breakfast we will take a run down to the courts. Drage, your
+predecessor, left only three days ago, but his house, which you have
+taken, will suit you admirably. You will find yourself very
+comfortable there, for Drage did himself well."
+
+After breakfast Hawkshawe's fast-trotting pony took them the one mile
+to the courthouse "in less than no time," as the policeman said, and,
+the trifling business of the first day concluded, they drove to the
+house Jackson was to occupy. He had taken it over as it stood from his
+predecessor, who had gone home on long furlough, and he was much
+pleased to find it comfortable beyond his expectations. All his heavy
+baggage had come on before, and Ah-Geelong, the Chinese servant, whom
+he had engaged as head man, was evidently a treasure. His books were
+neatly stacked in their shelves, and not with the titles upside down,
+for Ah-Geelong was skilled in the English tongue after his kind.
+Everything was spotlessly clean, from the half-dozen servants, who
+greeted him respectfully as he arrived, to the shining floor of the
+rooms, on the dark wood of which a mirrorlike polish had been
+scrubbed. After a few minutes Hawkshawe drove off, having made Jackson
+promise to dine with him that evening, and Peregrine was left to
+himself. He spent about an hour in arranging photographs and a few
+paintings, and then made a tour of the house and grounds. His
+ponies--two strong cobby little Shans--had come, and were looking
+sleek and comfortable in their stalls. He came back and made for the
+room which Ah-Geelong had arranged as his master's study. The Chinaman
+had selected this with a natural taste that could not be surpassed.
+The wide windows of the room opened into a veranda, from which there
+was an outlook over the river. There was a perfect north light, and
+the soft sea breeze that had travelled so many miles came in cool
+puffs past the _quis-qualis_ blossoms that twined and thrust
+themselves through the trellis work of the veranda. He wheeled out a
+small table and sat down to write home, for the steamer left early the
+next morning and the mails went with her. The letter was to his
+father, and, after describing the events of his journey, he went on to
+explain the feelings which moved him on his entry into the task of
+governing his fellow-creatures. He was aware that he ought to have
+first learned to govern himself; but practical work mostly leaves out
+that little detail upon which the moralist insists. Beyond a certain
+amount of book knowledge, he knew little or nothing of the people upon
+whom he was pitchforked by a gazette notification. He had been told
+that the Burman was incapable of progress, a sluggard, and a fop, and
+that the Chinaman was the future of Burma. His work was to collect the
+revenue, to preserve order, and to administer the law. But Jackson was
+not satisfied with accepting as an axiom the definition of the Burman
+given to him, nor did he feel that to carry out the mere routine of
+his work was sufficient. He had read much of the civilization of the
+East; but, after all, what is the civilization of the East to that of
+the West! Jackson was bringing all the active, vigorous West with him
+to this sleepy hollow in the creeks, and his coming would be as a
+breath of strong air to an invalid. He mapped out his programme. He
+would be to the benighted creatures--for of course they were
+benighted--over whom he was placed what his father had been and was to
+him, and so on for many pages of what a high-souled boy always dreams
+when he enters upon the battle of the East. With few exceptions, he
+comes out of the struggle dispirited and broken, feeling that the
+strong years of his life have been wasted in trying to affix the
+impression of a seal upon water. He folded his letter, and, ringing
+the little bell which stood near him, gave it to the servant who came
+to carry to the post. He then rose and, leaning over the railings of
+the veranda, looked out before him. It was almost sunset, and a veil
+of shimmering gold was over the land. The yellow light fell softly on
+the sleepy forest and trembled over the dreaming river. Out on the
+west stretched a long, thin line of purple clouds, and his heart went
+forth there, for beyond was home--home, which he should see again when
+his task was done--when he had struck the dead Budh once more into
+life--when the East had heard the message he bore it from the West.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+                           A DINNER À DEUX.
+
+                 Ho! A flowing bowl and a merry lass,
+                   And a fig for monk or friar!
+                     And the clean white light
+                     Of a sword in fight,
+                 And gold to my heart's desire.
+
+                                                _The Buccaneer_.
+
+
+Eight o'clock! There was just time to dress and reach Hawkshawe's
+house, unless Jackson wanted to be late for dinner. He was unromantic
+enough to have an extremely good appetite, and a man must dine even if
+he is going to make the old East new. He got through his dressing as
+quickly as possible, and found his pony waiting for him under the
+portico that protected the front door of the house. Ah-Geelong
+followed close at his heels with an enormous hand lantern, which threw
+a blaze of light many yards around them. Peregrine protested.
+
+"There is a bright moon, Ah-Geelong; you surely do not want a lamp!
+You might as well bring an umbrella!"
+
+"Plentee snakee, master," and the Chinaman pointed generally all
+around him with a long knotted bamboo staff. The argument was
+unanswerable. Out of deference, therefore, to the cobra the lantern
+was permitted to assist the moonlight, and the procession moved off.
+Peregrine determined that, snake or no snake, he would come back
+without the lantern, and as he rode took little mental bearings, in
+order to guide himself home again. On arrival, he sent back the pony
+with his groom, and Ah-Geelong disappeared into the servants' quarters
+with his cosmos burner. Hawkshawe came forward with cordial greeting,
+and it might have been fancy, but as they entered the drawing-room
+Peregrine thought he saw the curtain that guarded the entrance to a
+side door falling swiftly, and the flicker of a silken _tamein_ as it
+vanished from sight.
+
+"Take that long chair," said Hawkshawe, "and have a sherry and
+bitters; it will give you a fillip up!"
+
+Jackson did not want the fillip up, but he took the sherry and
+bitters. He did not do so, however, in his host's scientific way.
+Hawkshawe first sprinkled the bitters in, and holding the glass before
+him bent it on one side, slowly turning it until there was a streak of
+burnt sienna winding round the inside; then he poured in the sherry
+and drank sip by sip with deep satisfaction. "It's the only way to get
+the true flavour of the bitters," he remarked. This was, of course,
+utter nonsense; but Hawkshawe fully believed it, and said the words so
+positively that his listener bowed to his superior knowledge and also
+believed. When Hawkshawe had absorbed some of the flavour of the
+bitters, he asked, "How have you been amusing yourself since I left
+you--office files?"
+
+"No, a lot came in, but I have reserved them for later on. I've been
+writing letters. The mail goes out to-morrow, and I took the
+opportunity to write home."
+
+"Of course you did. I never write home now. The fact is I haven't seen
+Old England for many a long year now, and one loses touch. Besides, I
+never was a good hand at writing letters, and I don't suppose anything
+I have to say would be particularly interesting."
+
+"I should have thought it was quite the other way, Hawkshawe."
+
+As Jackson spoke dinner was announced, and they moved to the
+dining-room. It was dinner _à deux_, and for a few moments the
+conversation was general, Hawkshawe asking about friends at the
+capital, most of whom Jackson had met, notwithstanding his short stay
+there; but in this respect the East is a very small place. Finally
+Hawkshawe got on to the subject of his work, and gave a most
+interesting account of the robber gangs, or dacoits, that infested the
+district, concluding by expressing his firm belief that the chief
+malefactor was a well-known priest, who to all appearance had
+abandoned the world, but who, Hawkshawe was convinced, although he had
+apparently nothing to support his statement, acted as a fence, and was
+at the bottom of all the mischief.
+
+"And you really think," inquired Jackson, "that this man is a sort of
+head centre? It seems improbable, if what I have read and heard of the
+Buddhist priesthood is true; but I suppose there are exceptions."
+
+Hawkshawe slowly raised his glass to the light and watched the little
+beads in the Ayala. "Nothing is improbable in this country, as you
+will find after a few years' experience," he answered, half in mockery
+and half in earnest. "For instance, I believe it is really true that
+the bad characters of the adjoining district of Myobin were all driven
+here by the mosquitoes. They grow a special kind in Myobin--big gray
+ones about half an inch long, and striped like a tiger. They were more
+effective than the police; the dacoit couldn't stand them and came
+here, worse luck!"
+
+"The obvious course, then, would be to import some of your
+tiger-striped friends," laughed Jackson.
+
+Hawkshawe sighed. "We have done that, but it was of no use; there is
+something in the air here which does not agree with that particular
+brand of insect life. But, joking apart, the dacoits are a very
+serious evil here, and I have made little or no headway against them.
+Now and then I score a success, but I put down all my failures to the
+priest Bah Hmoay--old Father Fragrance."
+
+"I suppose there is no way of clearing the fragrant old gentleman
+out?"
+
+"None; but if one could be devised, you would end all our troubles and
+earn Smalley's undying gratitude as well. But Bah Hmoay is a power in
+the land in more ways than one, as you will find before many weeks, or
+rather days, have passed."
+
+"Why Smalley's gratitude in particular?"
+
+"Because two of a trade never agree, I fancy. I don't mean by this
+that Smalley is a dacoit in disguise, but that they are both bigoted
+representatives of religion, and each believes the other to be the
+fiend himself. By the way, the mention of Smalley reminds me that I
+have explained your little mistake of this morning to the reverend
+Habakkuk, and he is quite prepared to smoke the pipe of peace with
+you; and this is well, as he is the only doctor within a hundred
+miles, and no one knows what may happen. Of course, he will bother
+you a good deal; but I should think you would know how to meet him
+when he opens fire on the mission side."
+
+"It was very good of you to explain. I think also that I know what
+Smalley wants, and I must say I don't see why Government should help
+the mission on purely religious grounds--and he won't take help on any
+other. As an educationalist, Smalley should of course be helped, and
+the same argument would apply to the pagoda schools, over which I
+suppose Bah Hmoay presides. I don't think we should bring in religion
+into grants in aid, and it doesn't seem as if Christianity suits the
+Eastern. What do you think?"
+
+"Don't know; all that's beyond me. I do know, however, that the native
+Christian is generally a d--d scoundrel. Try these cigars--they are
+specially made, and you must be patriotic and adopt your new country
+properly. If you won't face them, there are some Havanas--made of
+cabbage leaves probably."
+
+"Thanks," said Jackson, "but I am afraid I am not yet blooded
+sufficiently for a Burman cheroot. I shall move up to the height by
+easy stages, and, if you will permit me, will stick to the Havanas,
+which I am sure you libel."
+
+"They are better for the nerves, at any rate," replied Hawkshawe, and
+Jackson noted how the flaring, sputtering vesta he lighted trembled in
+the policeman's hand as he held it to the cheroot. For the true
+enjoyment of tobacco there must be silence and repose. Although
+Jackson was utterly unable to attack a yard of poison, such as
+Hawkshawe was smoking, he knew how to enjoy a cigar, and the Havana
+was very good. The little incident of the curtain and the silken robe
+came into his mind again, and he caught himself getting curious about
+it. Hawkshawe was smoking nervously with quick, short puffs; he
+continually took the cheroot out of his mouth and rolled it between
+his fingers, apparently to make the rank leaf draw easier, and
+assisted his tobacco with short nips of old brandy--a thing which was
+not good to see. Jackson made no attempt to speak, and they smoked
+without a word being exchanged until the silence was apparently too
+much for the policeman, and he suddenly asked, "I suppose you like
+your new house?"
+
+"Very much indeed. You were right in saying that Drage did himself
+well. It is very nearly perfect."
+
+"Do you know what became of his impedimenta?"
+
+Jackson understood the question, and flushed with anger. He controlled
+himself, however, and answered shortly: "No; those are matters about
+which I am not in the least concerned, nor do I think any one else
+should be."
+
+"Don't you?" said Hawkshawe--his potations had evidently loosened his
+tongue--"don't you? Well, it will force itself on you some day. You
+shy at it now. We all did--I did--Thomson, Perkins, Drage did--and yet
+you see we are as we are. We have found that the cycle of Cathay is
+better than the fifty years of Europe."
+
+"And you call yourselves rulers of men! Why should you go down to the
+level of the brute if you happen to live near him?"
+
+"Don't know, my dear fellow, except that one gets to like, or like the
+brute after a time. Why, man," and Hawkshawe rose and began to pace
+the room, "what have we got to live for in this infernal country? You
+rot here--_rot_, I say--and your mind and your body both go to ooze
+and slime. Books! One can't read in this climate. The blue mould
+covers them up, as it has covered me, and as it will cover you and
+many a better man yet, and you will be as I am." Hawkshawe filled his
+glass and drank to the dregs. It seemed as if he were toasting the
+success of his hideous prophecy. "_And you will be as I am!_" The
+words hit Jackson like a life sentence. He looked at the man before
+him, at the promise in the high aquiline features and still, clear
+eyes, and then he saw the little crowsfeet round the eyelids, the
+puffy cheeks and trembling hands, and shuddered. No! It would never
+come to that with him. But a dread rose in his heart. What, after all,
+if he was wrong in his thoughts of his strength? Hawkshawe looked to
+him with a strange light in his eyes. "Come," he said, "let me show
+you what it is like."
+
+It was evident that Hawkshawe was determined, with a half-drunken
+persistence, to continue a subject that was more than unpleasant to
+his guest, and there was only one course open to Jackson, and that was
+to get away as quietly as possible. "I don't think I will venture," he
+replied, "and, at the risk of offending you, I must ask you to excuse
+me for to-night. One always has a lot to do on first coming to a
+place, and I am no exception to the rule. No, not any more, thank you,
+to-night; but I will have another of those cheroots, if I may."
+
+"I suppose if wilful will, then wilful must, but you are losing a new
+experience," said Hawkshawe, as he accompanied his guest to the door.
+He there found that Peregrine was going to walk home. "Let me order my
+trap for you, or a pony, if you prefer to ride?" he asked.
+
+"No, thanks, Hawkshawe; there is a bright moon, and I know my way
+perfectly. I go to plan the suppression of Bah Hmoay. Goodnight!"
+
+The hard gravel crunched under his firm footsteps as he walked down
+the drive. Hawkshawe stood looking after him. "He knows his way, he
+says. I wish I knew mine. Mr. Peregrine Jackson strikes me as rather a
+cold-blooded prig. I never could stand that sort of fellow--no," and,
+as if to keep his heart up, he sang:
+
+
+             "Pass the bowl, the merry, merry bowl,
+                Let it brim with good red wine.
+                  I have pledged my soul
+                  To the merry, merry bowl,
+                And the ruby light of wine."
+
+He trolled out the verse in a rich baritone as he walked upstairs and
+entered his drawing-room. Taking up a book, he flung himself into the
+same long chair he had so hospitably pressed on Jackson earlier in the
+evening. He glanced over the leaves for a few moments; but the effort
+to read was beyond him, and putting down the volume he stared moodily
+into space. He had done this for years. Every evening, except when he
+was on active service--and he was keen enough then--he had drunk more
+than was good for him, and sat drearily through an hour or so before
+going to sleep. Ordinarily he did not think at all on such occasions;
+but somehow Jackson's attitude had impressed itself on him, and he was
+feeling nervous and depressed. There was that also which brought a hot
+flush of shame to his forehead, for he had lied to his guest when he
+had expressed his inability to bring Bah Hmoay, the dacoit priest, to
+justice. It would all come out some day, and then he, Hawkshawe, would
+be cast adrift on the river of shame. "D--n!" he hissed between his
+teeth, and buried his hot face between his hands.
+
+The curtain before a door that led to an inner room was lifted, and a
+figure entered the room. It was that of a woman dressed in the
+national costume of Burma, which is so adapted to conceal as well as
+reveal the figure. Taller than ordinary, she had a face and form of
+imperial beauty, and as she stood there, looking at the bowed head
+before her, it was possible to understand Hawkshawe when he said that
+for himself he had chosen the cycle of Cathay. She crossed the room
+with light steps, and, laying her hand on his shoulder, asked in
+Burmese, "What is the matter? Are you ill?"
+
+Jackson had touched a lost chord in Hawkshawe's memory, and the
+murmurs of the white past were sighing in his ears. He raised his head
+wearily, and drooped it again. "No, Ma Mie, not ill in body but sick
+at heart."
+
+She looked at him, and, untutored savage as she was, she understood,
+and, stooping suddenly, kissed him with a fierce little pressure.
+"Hawkshawe," she said, "I have news for you--good news. Look up, my
+husband!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                    FATHER FRAGRANCE LIMES A TWIG.
+
+_Ruys_.--I care for naught but gold.
+         Gold holds the keys of this strong earth, and I
+         Am earthy, of its mould. That unseen thing,
+         The crown of glory, lies beyond the stars;
+         I know it not.... Give me my gold.
+
+                                           _Maraffa, a Tragedy_.
+
+
+A broad streak of yellow water is drowsing toward the sea, and lies
+hedged in to the right and to the left by the most luxuriant
+vegetation. Here teak and mango, palm and bamboo grow side by side,
+and are laced together by the octopus arms of the cobweb of creepers
+that spreads over the forest and tries in vain to bind down its
+splendid growth. There is hardly any sign of animal life, although the
+forests teem with it. Occasionally the great woodpecker or a flight of
+green paroquets flash like emeralds through the patches of sunshine
+between the leaves, or the melancholy cry of a mule pheasant echoes
+dismally through the woods. Yet although no beast and hardly a bird
+may be seen, this void is filled by the ever-present abundance of
+insects, for here is their paradise. It is true that those grotesque
+specimens of creation which, like the sons of Belial, wander forth at
+night, are reserving themselves in a million cracks and crannies for
+the pleasures of the evening; but the gnat and mosquito are on the
+alert, and the fly is here on his path of annoyance. Through the dense
+masses of foliage glide, like the snakes which infest them, the creeks
+that cut the delta of the Irawadi into numberless channels, and while
+thus dividing it serve as a means of communication from one part of
+the country to the other; for who, unless an Englishman, would
+scramble through the bramble and thorn of the jungle? Who would do so,
+when it is so easy to sit in a canoe and ship silently along the ooze
+of the creeks?
+
+Some little way back from the main stream a canoe lies hidden in a
+small backwater. There are two occupants, and, being Burmans, they are
+of course both smoking, for smoke to the Burman is what beer is to the
+Saxon, a Derringer to the gentlemen of Arkansas, or opium to the
+Celestial. One of the two, in whose powerful hand is grasped a
+long-bladed paddle, is apparently a man of the people. He wears his
+hair long, and the golden brown of his limbs is covered with tattoo
+marks in strange devices. The other is a man of God; his yellow robe,
+his shaven crown, mark the priest of Budh. There is no asceticism,
+however, in the fat cheeks, or in the beadlike eyes which glint out
+from above the high cheek bones. The mouth is like a sword cut, long
+and cruel-looking, and the sensual aspect of the face is only matched
+by its cunning and treacherous look.
+
+"Payah," said the man with the paddle, using a Burmese title of the
+highest respect, "we have now waited for two hours; the steamer will
+not come to-day."
+
+The priest went on smoking as if he had not heard the remark, and his
+companion relapsed into silence. After a few minutes, however, the
+clerical gentleman found voice.
+
+"Moung Sen," said he, "your name means red diamond, but it ought to
+have meant a clod. Did I not tell you that the steamer will come
+to-day? and I tell you again she will come. The wire has brought me
+the news. Two hours! What are two hours to me? I gain two hundred
+years of eternal bliss by meditating during two hours on holy matters
+of which you laymen know nothing---- Hark! there is the whistle that
+was to be our signal."
+
+And even as he spoke the shrill whistle of the Woon announced her
+coming, and the dull boom of the answering gun from Pazobin rang out
+in response.
+
+Moung Sen bent his back to the paddle, and the boat shot out of the
+backwater to the very edge of the creek. There, concealed by the
+drooping foliage, they could see without being seen, and watch without
+any risk of discovery.
+
+"Payah Bah Hmoay, the steamer approaches near," and, parting the
+screen of leaves with his hands, Moung Sen peered out.
+
+"Yes, and with it Jackson, the new ruler of the land. I heard him say
+in Rangoon that he would stamp out all evildoers, so you, Moung Sen,
+had better be careful."
+
+The boatman showed a row of teeth that would have driven a tiger mad
+with envy, and chuckled to himself. As the steamer came near they
+could hear the hissing of the paddles, and the wash rocked the canoe
+up and down to the no small danger of its upsetting.
+
+Moung Sen was longing for a race. He would have dearly liked to have
+pulled against the steamer for the jetty. His slanting eyes twinkled
+with excitement, and he turned an imploring look on Bah Hmoay.
+
+"Ho!" grunted Father Fragrance, "be still. What with racing and
+gambling and women, you will come to a bad end some day--hang to a
+string and dance upon nothing. Is this a time to think of racing,
+when that young fool on the steamer yonder is come here with his
+new-fangled notions? Back, I say! Our friends have heard the steamer's
+whistle and will have assembled. Here! give me a paddle too." He
+seized the spare paddle that was handed to him, and, loosening his
+robe to give his arm free play, rowed with a most unclerical skill.
+Guided by their powerful strokes the canoe sped back, and, taking a
+narrow cutting at the head of the backwater, they rowed steadily on
+for ten minutes and then stopped.
+
+Moung Sen put his hands to his mouth and hooted twice like an owl. A
+cock crowed twice in reply. "They are there," he said, and, running
+the canoe on to the bank, the two men secured it firmly with a
+creeper, then, taking an almost invisible path, they trotted along it
+like sleuthhounds. After a short distance was travelled in this manner
+Moung Sen hooted again, and again the cock answered as it were out of
+the hollow of a huge silk-cotton tree a few yards away. Then the tree
+began to give up its fruit. One by one four men came out of the
+hollow, and half a dozen others dropped lightly from the branches
+where they had lain concealed. Each as he approached the priest bowed
+lowly before him. They took their places in a semicircle whose ends
+were to the right and left of Bah Hmoay. He gazed on them for a
+moment; they were a strong and likely looking set of men, fit for any
+devil's work. The chequered light fell on the bronze of their bodies,
+for they were naked to the waist, lit up the hideous blue and red of
+the tattoo marks with which they were covered, and ran in a line of
+fire on the long straight blades of the _dahs_ they held in their
+hands. Then Bah Hmoay spoke, taking the men before him into his
+confidence, choosing his language simply, and appealing to all their
+weaknesses.
+
+"And now, my companions," he concluded, "I have told you all that I
+learned during my visit to Rangoon, and how the plans are progressing.
+At Wuntho the chief is ready to take up arms; the Shan States are
+on fire--on fire, I say--and every creek and jungle holds gallant
+men only waiting for the signal to rise. Our whole difficulty is
+money--for when was a Burman rich? I propose, however, to meet this,
+and to find funds by a bold stroke. You all know the treasury at Yeo.
+It is thirty miles from here, and there are a hundred rupees there,
+all with the White Queen's head on them. Half shall be yours; the
+other half goes to the cause. Are you ready?"
+
+There was a murmur of assent.
+
+"Thank you. There is but one word more: in a week from to-day--the day
+of the guinea pig--you must be at Yeo. And now for the water of the
+oath." He loosened a small pocketbook from his waist cloth as he said
+these words, and, writing a few lines on a page, tore it out. One held
+an earthen vessel full of water before him, and another lit a sulphur
+match. The Boh put the match to the paper and held it over the water,
+into which as it burned away the cinders fell; but when the flame got
+too close to his fingers to be pleasant the chief dropped the little
+unburned tag of paper into the water, and it went out with a splutter.
+Then taking the vessel in his hands, he swore to be faithful to the
+men before him, and, drinking a little, handed it to Moung Sen. That
+worthy pledged his soul on his good faith to the assembly, and, taking
+his sip, passed on the bowl. It went the round of every man there
+until it reached the last, who, when he too had sworn and drunken,
+dropped the vessel to the ground, where it broke into pieces.
+
+This closed the chapter of the order, and the knights proceeded to
+disperse, each man with his long green cheroot burning in his mouth
+and his _dah_ tucked away over his shoulder, a grotesque amalgam of
+devil and the child, the like of which is not equalled anywhere in the
+world.
+
+Bah Hmoay and his Little John were once more alone, and the Boh or
+chief turned to his subaltern with a somewhat anxious look in his
+eyes, and asked:
+
+"Do you think they will be true?"
+
+"My name means red diamond, but it ought to mean a clod," laughed
+Moung Sen. "Yes, I think they will be true, and will all be hanged for
+their faith, while you will end as a great man. But there is something
+else to do to-day."
+
+"Hawkshawe--true--I have not forgotten; however, we ought to be
+getting back," and making for the canoe they rowed out into the open
+stream and then drifted down toward the town. As the priest stepped
+from the canoe his face assumed the severe expression of sanctity
+suitable to his calling; an obsequious disciple met him and opened an
+umbrella over his head, and he walked toward the pagoda or temple
+meeting with respectful greetings from all. He entered the gates of
+the pagoda, on either side of which grinned two colossal griffins,
+and, making his way through a courtyard thronged with worshippers,
+passed into the great hall, where a huge image of Gautama looked down
+upon him with calm, inquiring eyes. A tall, graceful woman stood at
+the foot of the idol, and as the priest approached she looked at him
+with something of impatience in her glance, and said, "I have been
+waiting here for nearly an hour."
+
+"My daughter, it is patience and resignation which, united with
+thought, leads us to holy Nirvana."
+
+"Pish! I haven't come here to bandy words about Nirvana. Was it for
+this you sent Loo-ga-lay for me?"
+
+Bah Hmoay dropped his voice to a whisper as he said, "You are too
+hasty; women are always so. Follow me," and, passing behind the idol,
+he touched a door which seemed to open of its own accord, disclosing a
+small passage dimly lighted by a single lamp. At the end of the
+passage was a small archway, so low that it was necessary for both to
+stoop as they entered it, and beyond was a large hall, along whose
+sides a row of Gautamas or images of the Budh was arranged with
+military precision. The images were alternately of white and black
+marble, and at the extreme end lay a huge recumbent casting of the
+Messiah of the East. Small lozenge-shaped cuttings in the wall above
+let in bars of light, which fell on the dim statues and made the
+polished brass of the recumbent image glow as if it were red-hot. The
+girl leaned lightly against the arm of the huge figure, and something
+flashed in her hand as she did so. Bah Hmoay observed it as he pointed
+to the dagger, and said with a smile, "You are very careful, Ma Mie;
+too careful for one so beautiful."
+
+There was enough in the speaker's voice to make his listener turn on
+him like a panther, and Father Fragrance stepped back with a hasty
+apology. Then he spoke in a low tone for some time, the woman all the
+while keeping her guarded attitude. "There," he said at last, "this is
+a good offer. Will it do?"
+
+"I am selling my husband's honour," she replied. "No, it is worth a
+larger price."
+
+The priest uttered an exclamation of impatience, and moving off a few
+feet stooped near the foot of an idol, and picking up something from a
+recess there returned bearing it in his hands. He held it to the light
+as he approached, and Ma Mie saw that it was a bracelet of rubies,
+which flashed and glowed with a hundred colours. She almost gasped as
+she looked at it.
+
+"Oh, how lovely!"
+
+"Let me put it on your arm." Bah Hmoay, suiting his action to his
+words, stepped back with an admiring look. "There is nothing like this
+in all Pazobin," he said. "I will add it to my offer."
+
+The woman hesitated and was lost. "It is a bargain," she said, and the
+face of Father Fragrance glowed with joy. "The new Englishman comes to
+dine with him to-night," she added. "When he is gone, I will settle
+all. And now I must go; I have been away too long."
+
+"You can go this way," said the priest as he turned the key in a
+carved door toward the right, and opening it showed Ma Mie a back path
+that led out of the pagoda gardens. "And remember, the police guard
+must be very weak at Yeo next Friday."
+
+She nodded and passed out, and Bah Hmoay watched her down the pathway
+and saw her raise her arm and look at the bracelet upon it. "Selling
+her husband's honour!" he laughed to himself. "When had Hawkshawe any
+to sell? Those ideas of hers are, however, very expensive, and I had
+to take away my peace offering from this old gentleman here." He
+patted the face of the idol from under whose foot he had removed the
+jewels. "However, he won't miss it, and Friday evening will see me
+repaid and ready to buy another rag of Mr. Hawkshawe's honour."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+                            RUYS SMALLEY.
+
+              He rode toward the Dragon Gate,
+                And blew a ringing call,
+              A virgin knight, in armour bright,
+                'Twere sad to see him fall.
+              Ah, saints of heaven, steel his heart,
+                And nerve his arm withal!
+
+                                          _Sir Amory_.
+
+
+Jackson walked out into the moonlight with a feeling of relief at
+having escaped from Hawkshawe. His disgust at his host's code of
+morality was only equalled by his pity for him. Perhaps, after all,
+the man did not mean what he said; and it was possible that an appeal
+to Philip sober would result in the expression of sentiments widely
+different from those which bubbled forth from Philip charged with a
+quart of Ayala, sundry short brandies, and a multitude of "baby pegs,"
+as three fingers of mountain dew tempered with a split soda are called
+in the country of the creeks. Peregrine hesitated a moment whether he
+should go straight home or walk on a little. A great mass of official
+papers had come to the house as he left it that evening, and his work
+was cut out for him; but after what had happened he was in no mood to
+begin at once. He pulled out his watch, and seeing by the bright moon
+that it was barely half-past ten, decided to adopt the latter course.
+He walked slowly toward the river face, and then across the soft sand
+to the deserted jetty, where he paced up and down its full length. In
+front of the dark outline of the forest a few twinkling lights marked
+the sleeping town, for Pazobin went to roost early. The fishing craft
+were all huddled together like sheep in a pen, and the outgoing tide
+lapped angrily at the wooden piles below. The wind bore to him the
+soft tinkle of the bells that swung from the golden umbrella on the
+spire of the pagoda. Their dreamy monotone fitted exactly with the
+scene, and seemed to call all good Buddhists to that Nirvana which to
+them is the end of all things. Everything was calm except the mind of
+the man who paced the teak planking of the jetty. Jackson was in that
+temper which would have been horrible doubt to an older man, but which
+to him in his youthful confidence in his own power was absolute
+certainty. He had shaken off the momentary terror of Hawkshawe's
+prophecy, "And you will be as I am!" That would never be; his young
+heart swelled with pride as he drew himself up in the consciousness of
+his strength. He did not seek aid in prayer. He had never sought it,
+except in dim infancy. Since his mother's death, in his childhood, he
+had known no care but that of his father, and the older man had
+brought up his son in his own creed, which was, to summarize it, man.
+And Peregrine drunk it all in eagerly and was an apt pupil. He held
+himself apart from all beliefs--Calvary, Mecca, the groves of Gya,
+were all one to him in that they all aimed at the good of mankind, in
+that they had all accomplished untold good. He was aware of the
+rewards offered to the faithful--the harp and crown of the Christian,
+the sensual paradise of the Moslem, the merging into the deity of the
+Buddhist--and none of these tempted. He had looked with scorn on the
+professor of a faith who calculated on the advantages that would
+accrue to him from his fidelity; he despised the human being who sold
+good works for a price and speculated in futurity like a stock broker
+making a time bargain. He was young and very cocksure. The solitary
+up-and-down tramp, combined with the cheroot and his naturally calm
+temper, began to quiet Peregrine's excitement, and he finally put
+aside all thoughts of Hawkshawe and stopped for a moment near the huge
+crane which stretched out its long arm over the river as if begging
+for something. The Havana had burned low by this time, and he flung it
+from him, watching the little arc of fire die away with an angry hiss
+into the water below. Then he turned to go. He recrossed the sand,
+once more passed Hawkshawe's house, from an upper window of which the
+light was burning brightly, and, turning to the right, took, as he
+imagined, the road home. He had said that he thought he knew his way
+perfectly, but now it seemed as if the bearings he had taken were all
+wrong. One tree was like another, one bend of the road was like every
+other he had passed. The few houses were all built on the same plan,
+and he could scarcely discern them in the mass of foliage with which
+they were surrounded. It flashed upon him that he had lost his way,
+when he was so sure of it. What if he had miscalculated his strength
+as he had done the road? He stopped for a moment near a wooden gate to
+try and see if he could find a landmark, and as he did so a sudden
+blaze of light streamed out of one of the windows of a long building
+that lay within the gateway. A moment after the droning tones of an
+American organ stole into the night, and above them rang out a woman's
+voice clear and distinct:
+
+
+                     My God, I love thee; not because
+                       I hope for heaven thereby,
+                     Nor yet because who love thee not
+                       Are lost eternally.
+
+
+He listened in a manner spellbound not only by the voice, which was of
+the rarest order, but also by the words, which poured forth from the
+heart, the genuine unselfishness of the Christian's belief. That pure
+flood of melody floating into the night seemed to give all his
+convictions the lie as it passed out on its way beyond the stars to
+God's throne. Cheap and jingling as the verses were, the simple words
+sung by such a voice carried with them a revelation he had never
+imagined. He wondered to himself what manner of woman this was whose
+voice affected him so powerfully. He determined to see this beautiful
+saint--for of course she was beautiful--and stepping cautiously down
+the road approached the open window through which the song poured.
+Standing back amid the yellow and purple leaves of a croton, he peered
+in, and saw a long narrow hall filled with rows of empty benches. At
+the head of the room, and close to the window, was a low dais, and
+upon this the organ was placed. The singer was seated with her back
+turned toward him; but the light from a shaded lamp lit up the sunny
+gold of her hair and fell on the outlines of an exquisite figure. She
+was alone, singing to the night. Overcome with curiosity, Peregrine
+stole softly to the window and raised himself slightly with his hands
+to look in. As he did so the sudden snapping bark of a dog, hitherto
+lying concealed near its mistress's dress, rang out, and the singer
+turned round so sharply that it was impossible for Peregrine to
+withdraw unobserved; but as she turned he saw that the perfect beauty
+of her face more than realized the picture he had drawn in his
+imagination.
+
+"Who are you? What do you want?" she gasped, with an alarmed light in
+her eyes.
+
+"I am very sorry," explained Peregrine humbly. "I have lost my way,
+and seeing a light and hearing music thought I--I----" and he
+stammered and broke down for a moment; but picking himself up, went
+on, "I have only arrived here to-day. My name is Jackson, and the
+house I want to find is the one that was occupied by Mr. Drage;
+perhaps you know it, and if you can give me a rough idea how to find
+it I shall be very grateful, and I hope you will accept my sincere
+apologies for having frightened you."
+
+As he spoke, the look of fear on his listener's face passed away. "Be
+quiet, Flirt!" she said to the little dog, who kept alternately
+growling and yapping to herself, and then, turning to Jackson: "Yes,
+you did startle me at first. So you are Mr. Jackson. My husband--that
+is, Dr. Smalley--said he met you to-day," and she smiled as if she was
+thinking of something that amused her. "This," she continued with a
+little wave of the hand, "is the school, and we live next door. If you
+will kindly come in by that door to your left you can help me to shut
+the musical box, and then I will take you right away to my husband,
+and he will see you through the wilderness to your home." The slight
+American accent in her voice lent her words a piquant charm, and it
+was with a true American's ready resourcefulness that she carried on
+the conversation with Jackson and attempted to take stock of him at
+the same time as he stood outside, half in shadow and half in light.
+
+"It is very kind of you," said Peregrine gratefully, and he made
+toward the door, delighted with the lucky accident that had brought
+him this adventure. Nevertheless, the words "my husband" did not
+please him. So this beautiful creature was Smalley's wife! "I wonder,"
+he muttered to himself, "if marriages are really made in heaven, why
+they don't assort people better." There was, however, no more time for
+regretful reflection, for the door was opened by his involuntary
+hostess, and they walked up to the dais together. As Jackson closed
+the organ Mrs. Smalley looked at him from under her long lashes,
+and a faint colour stole into her cheeks. She stood by placidly,
+however, holding a large hymn book in her hand and saying nothing.
+When he had finished, she spoke: "Now you can carry the light and
+come along--tchick, Flirtie!"
+
+And they went into the garden, Peregrine full of pleasure at being
+ordered about in this unceremonious manner, and his companion walking
+demurely beside him.
+
+A few steps brought them to the parsonage; the Reverend Habakkuk was
+summoned from the interior and matters explained to him. He hospitably
+pressed Jackson to stay and have some refreshment, but Peregrine
+noticed an impatient look in his hostess's face and declined. Smalley
+determined to lead Peregrine back himself, notwithstanding his
+protestations that all he wanted was a few simple directions, and,
+putting on a wide felt hat, turned to his wife, "I shall be back soon,
+Ruys; do not wait for me."
+
+"Good-night, Mrs. Smalley." For the life of him Peregrine could not
+help throwing a shade of regret into the last words, and an odd light
+came into his listener's eyes.
+
+"Good-night, Mr. Jackson. I am--we both are--_so_ glad you _lost_ your
+way here. I trust you will in future be able to find it often." She
+made a demure little courtesy as she said this in an even voice, and
+Jackson and his host passed out of the house.
+
+She listened till the sound of their footsteps died away, and then
+turning round to her dog picked it up and sat in a chair with the
+little animal in her lap. "Flirt," she said, "I guess he's perfectly
+luv-ly. There, you can go down now. I want to think." And she sat
+leaning back in her easy-chair with a pleased expression on her face
+until Habakkuk returned, and said, as he put down his hat:
+
+"A most excellent young man that, Ruys; I am afraid I misjudged
+him sadly to-day," and the missionary, pulling a chair near his
+wife, rubbed the palms of his hands together softly. "Remarkably
+good-looking, too, don't you think?"
+
+She turned and looked him full in the face. "I don't think I've given
+Mr. Jackson's looks a thought."
+
+"Of course not, of course not," said Habakkuk timidly, and began to
+repeat the nervous rubbing of his hands together.
+
+"Why of course not?"
+
+The calm tone in which this question was asked entirely upset Smalley;
+he stopped his hand exercise, and, crossing one leg over his knee,
+began to nurse it and sway slightly backward and forward. He did not
+answer his wife's question, and she watched him for a moment, and in
+her heart began to wonder how it was she had ever consented to marry
+this lanky, shuffling creature before her. She knew his moral
+character was irreproachable; if only his personal appearance were
+more prepossessing. She had truly and honestly tried to do her duty as
+his wife, but the chains of her bondage were beginning to gall.
+Mentally she was far Smalley's inferior. She could not live in the
+clear ether, in the pure air of his thoughts, and she was always
+unconsciously dragging him down while making many an honest effort to
+rise to his level. She had lived so quietly for so long a time that
+the sudden and unconventional manner of her meeting with Jackson
+had affected her powerfully. There was no denying that he was
+good-looking, and she had drifted into a flirtation with him at sight
+as naturally as a duck takes to the water. Oh, if life were only
+different for her! she thought as she watched Smalley swinging himself
+in his chair. The slow motion exasperated her; her nerves were at a
+tension, and she said sharply:
+
+"Habakkuk, I wish you wouldn't fidget so! Can't you sit still anyhow,
+like any other mortal? Do read, or do something. I want to think, and
+my head is aching."
+
+"Of course, of course," assented the missionary, and a furious light
+gleamed in his wife's eyes, which, fortunately for him, Habakkuk did
+not observe. He was a man slow of thought, and it was only after a
+little time that he began to realize that his wife had said she was in
+pain. He looked at her softly from his calm blue eyes, and then,
+putting forth his hand, laid it gently on hers. Ruys received the
+caress passively. Then Habakkuk was emboldened, and he tried to draw
+her toward him. She evaded him, however, by a deft turn of the
+shoulder, and, rising, walked to a table in the room, and picking up a
+heavy Bible placed it before her husband, as she said primly:
+
+"It is getting very late. I think you had better read a chapter before
+going to bed."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+                       "FURIIS AGITATUS AMOR."
+
+                     Belike for her, a royal crown
+                     I'd wager to a penny piece.
+
+                                                 _Old Play_.
+
+
+As Jackson and his guide left the gates of the parsonage Peregrine
+struggled with a temptation to look back over his shoulder. Finally he
+gave in with a sense of shame at his weakness, and then was
+unreasonably irritated to find that no shadowy figure behind the
+tinkling bead screen before the open window watched their passage down
+the moonlit road. The result was that for the first few hundred yards
+of their walk there was very little talk, for Peregrine's silence
+discouraged all the missionary's attempts at conversation. Suddenly
+the whole countryside seemed to be filled with the flashing light of
+gems. A blaze of jewelled glory came and vanished in a moment, and
+then appeared again in all its fairy beauty to slip away as swiftly as
+before.
+
+"What on earth is that?" asked Peregrine, moved out of his reserve at
+the sight.
+
+"Bugs," replied Habakkuk, "fire-bugs. They're pretty lively to-night,
+anyhow. Each one with the little lantern God has given him. They don't
+make a real show, however, because of the moon."
+
+"Of course," said Peregrine, "I might have known they were fireflies,
+but it all came so suddenly, and I had no idea the sight was so
+perfectly beautiful," and he pointed to the millions of little lights
+twinkling through the night.
+
+"I guess so, Mr. Jackson; just as if all the little stars had come
+down to earth and hung themselves out on the trees to dry." The
+constraint with which the walk began now vanished, and Smalley took
+the opportunity to read Jackson a lecture on the subject of health,
+summing up with these words, "I am speaking as a medical man now, Mr.
+Jackson; you must remember to take care of No. 1--that is, of
+yourself. This is a most treacherous climate, and I have known many
+men stronger even than you look fall before it like withered leaves.
+Take a quinine pill daily, and always wear flannel next to your skin.
+I don't do it myself, but then I'm a seasoned vessel. Ah! here we are
+at your gate."
+
+"Do come in, Dr. Smalley?" and Jackson held the wicket invitingly
+open.
+
+"No, no, thanks," replied Habakkuk. "Pooh, man! Don't thank me for
+showing you the way a few yards. Good-night! I must get back, for my
+wife is sure to be waiting for me."
+
+The last words jarred on Jackson, and he felt all his old feelings
+returning as he shook hands with his guide, who turned and shuffled
+off into the moonlight. When Jackson had got about a third of the way
+down to his own door, however, he heard his name shouted out by
+Habakkuk.
+
+"What is it?" he called out as he hastened back.
+
+"Only this--don't forget about the flannel and the quinine.
+Good-night!"
+
+"Confound him!" and the angry young man turned on his heel and entered
+the house. It was very fairly late now, and Jackson had worked himself
+again into a thoroughly excited frame of mind. Ah-Geelong devoted
+himself to making his master comfortable for the night, and as the
+slippered Galahad sat in an easy-chair trying to collect himself and
+gather together the fragments of resolve to attack the pile of papers
+he saw on the table in his study, he heard the angry fizz of a
+soda-water bottle and the hissing of its contents as it was poured
+into a long tumbler and placed beside him.
+
+"What _are_ you doing, Ah-Geelong?"
+
+"Allee masters dlinkee peg--peg him keep off fever. Dlinkee peg and go
+sleep," and Ah-Geelong almost lit up the room with the shining row of
+teeth he displayed. It was impossible to be angry, but Jackson told
+the man to go, and he went, wondering, perhaps, wherein he had done
+wrong.
+
+Peregrine rose from his seat and went to his study. But over the file
+before him flirted the outlines of the face he had seen. "Ruys," he
+murmured to himself, repeating the name by which he had heard her
+called, and it almost seemed to him that she replied, and that he
+heard the melody of her voice again. The far-off shadows of the room
+gathered to themselves form and substance, and as he leaned back idly
+there rose before him the vision of the dimly lighted school hall and
+that golden head bending slightly over the music. He had never been in
+love, and he gave himself up for the moment to the fascination of
+dreaming over the face he had seen. This was what inspired the knights
+of old. He stretched out his strong right arm and almost felt that he
+held a lance in rest. What would he not give to know that this
+peerless woman was his own? How he would work and labour! But a few
+short hours ago he was bowing at the shrine of a lofty ideal that was
+to carry him through life, at that invisible glory which strengthened
+his shrinking heart and nerved him to the highest for duty's sake. And
+all this was gone. The old god was dethroned in a moment, and the soft
+notes of a woman's voice, the touch of her hand, a glance from her
+eyes, and the past was rolled up like a scroll.
+
+"My God," he said, "can this be love?" It never struck him that he had
+unconsciously appealed to that Godhead in whom he thought he had no
+belief. He was not able to think of that then--of how in a moment of
+trial the doubting soul turns instinctively to cling for support to
+that ethereal essence we call the Creator, and endows it with a living
+faculty to hear and to answer. Surely this spontaneous appealing to a
+higher power is something more than the mere force of habit. It
+springs from the heart pure as the snows of Everest, genuine and true.
+And this is the instinct which is not taken into account in the
+mathematical reasoning of the atheist; the touch of fire that would
+enlighten him out of his darkness is wanting. He will allow the
+instinct which tells an animal of his danger, which signals to him a
+friend; but to man, the highest of all animals, will he deny the
+instinct of the soul which shouts aloud to him the existence of God.
+
+And the answer to Peregrine's question came unspoken, but he felt it
+ringing within him. Yes, and a hot flush of shame went over him as he
+thought of another man's wife. "It will not be! it shall not be!" he
+said, and he fought with himself as a strong man can fight. He fought
+with the devil that tempted until he saw the light of the morning star
+pale in the east and a pink flush steal into the sky; and then, being
+utterly wearied, he lay down and slept a dreamful sleep. It seemed to
+him that he was standing beside his own body and watching a dark
+stream trickle slowly, slowly from his heart. Around him were misty
+figures whom he could not recognise, and he lay there very still and
+silent. Suddenly there was a flash of golden hair, and a woman robed
+in white stooped and kissed him on the forehead, and as she rose he
+knew the glorious beauty of her face, and then he awoke.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                     ANTHONY POZENDINE SPEAKS UP.
+
+              Hark unto me! Myself will weave the plot
+              Close as the spider's web, with threads as fine.
+
+                                                        _Old Play_.
+
+
+Anthony Pozendine, the half-caste head clerk of the district office of
+Pazobin, had evidently something on his mind. He sat at his desk amid
+a heap of files, over which his head just appeared, and every now and
+again his squeaky voice rose in petulant complaint or censure of one
+of his subordinates.
+
+"Here, Mr. Pillay, can't you add, eh? You make out four hundred cases
+tried last quarter, and seven hundred convictions! Sshoo!" And he
+flung a file across the room at the unfortunate Mr. Pillay, who
+stooped and, picking it up humbly, went on with his work.
+
+Through the half-open door of the office the buzz of voices from the
+court room came in, and occasionally a peon would enter with a request
+for Pozendine to see either Hawkshawe or Jackson. When it was to see
+Jackson, Anthony obeyed with a resigned air and a certain amount of
+pleasure, because he knew he was being sent for to remove some
+difficulty of routine which the new chief felt, and this would raise
+him in the eyes of his subordinate clerks, and make them think the
+power of Pozendine was great in the land. When it was to see
+Hawkshawe, Anthony's thin legs trembled under him, and he went with an
+outside assumption of dignity but a great fear in his heart, and when
+he returned there was generally an explosion of some kind. Hawkshawe
+had already sent for him four times to-day, and Anthony's temper was
+in shreds. He had just taken a fair sheet of foolscap, folded it
+lengthwise, and written in a clerkly hand across the half margin near
+the top "Memo. for orders," when again the messenger entered with a
+request from Hawkshawe, that was practically an order, to see him at
+once. "Damn!" said Anthony so loudly that the ten busy heads in the
+room bobbed up from among the heaps of papers in which they were
+buried, and ten scared faces looked at Anthony in alarm. Ten pairs of
+eyes were fixed upon him with anxious inquiry in their gaze, and the
+magnetic effect of this made the head clerk cough nervously and very
+nearly upset the inkstand.
+
+"Are you coming?" said the messenger in an insolent tone, as he stood
+in an easy attitude before Anthony and inserted a piece of betel
+between his teeth.
+
+Anthony glared at him. "I'm coming," he said. "Go 'way," and then he
+turned on his assistants.
+
+"Wot are you all looking at, eh? Wasting time this way and that way.
+Think gov'ment pays you to sit in your chairs and look about! Here
+you, Mr. Rozario, you joined office a last-grade clerk two years ago,
+you're a last-grade clerk now, you'll leave it a last grade, I think.
+G'long and work--plentee of work--if not, I will reduce
+establishment."
+
+Ten heads sank back into their papers, and the little man, seizing a
+file in his hand, walked slowly out with becoming dignity, his heart,
+however, full of combined fear and anger.
+
+He was absent for fully half an hour, and the clerks once or twice
+distinctly heard the strident tones of Hawkshawe's voice echoing along
+the long passage, through the court where Jackson sat, and into the
+room where they worked.
+
+"Big row on," remarked Mr. Rozario to no one in particular. "Pozendine
+ketching it warm, warm."
+
+Finally the head clerk reappeared, but he came back with hasty steps
+and a face in which green predominated over its habitually yellow
+tinge. There were two blue lines to mark his lips, and his hands
+shivered over his papers as he stood at his desk in an irresolute sort
+of way. Finally he could contain himself no longer, and turned to his
+chief assistant.
+
+"Mr. Iyer," said he, "am I head clerk of the district office or head
+clerk of the police office, eh? Answer me, eh?"
+
+The stout Madrassee clerk looked at a fellow, who looked at another,
+and then, as if by one impulse, the whole room arose and crowded
+around Pozendine.
+
+"Am I," repeated Anthony, "head clerk of the district office or of the
+police office?"
+
+"You're chief clerk," hazarded Mr. Rozario.
+
+"Yes," assented Anthony, "I am the chief clerk. I have served gov'ment
+twentee-four years, and now Mr. Hawkshawe he sends for me and tells me
+before a menial servant that I know nothing. Why, I taught four deputy
+commissioners their work! Who writes revenue report? Who writes notes
+on crops? Who makes tabular statements? Who drafts to commissioner and
+revises administration report? Who attends to district roads? Who sees
+to cess collections, budget work, record and despatch, stamps and
+stationery, office routine and discipline, eh? Who? Who? Who? And now
+Mr. Hawkshawe he sends for me to look over Mr. Drage's report on
+police. 'Pozendine,' he says, 'you're a damfool'--call me, Anthony
+Pozendine, head clerk of the district, _damfool!_ 'Sir,' I said,
+'that's Mr. Drage's order,' and he say, 'You ought to have been able
+to tell Mr. Drage what to write.' 'See,' he say, 'now that Mr. Drage
+has gone on leave nothing can be done about this, and it will give
+beastly trouble--and now be off with you, infernal idiot!' _Damfool
+and infernal idiot!_ I will report to commissioner at once by wire
+through assistant commissioner and resign. Now you go on with your
+work." He flung himself down into his seat and began to scribble a
+long complaint to Jackson about the treatment he had received from
+Hawkshawe. There was much irrelevant matter in it, and his pen fairly
+hissed along the paper. While he was thus engaged the Madrassee clerk
+Iyer rose softly and, stealing toward Pozendine, whispered in his ear.
+It was like one devil tempting another, and Anthony's face was
+perfectly satanic in its expression of glee as he listened.
+
+"Plenty witness--Ma Mie's sister my wife," murmured Iyer, and his
+yellow eyes twinkled like two evil stars. Pozendine nodded his head.
+"Ah, ha! Mr. Hawkshawe, you call me damfool--I will brand you dam'
+blaggard!" he hissed out aloud as his busy fingers travelled over the
+paper and Iyer went back to his seat.
+
+The Madrassee watched his superior keenly from his chair, and a wicked
+smile stole over his features as he half expressed his thoughts.
+"Pozendine will get sack, and I will become chief clerk." He then
+placidly put up a memo. for orders on the subject of the wasteful
+extravagance in blue pencil indulged in by the district engineer.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+"I can not stand that beast of a head clerk, Jackson," and Hawkshawe,
+flinging himself into a chair, pulled out a long brown-leather cheroot
+case and extracted a gigantic cheroot therefrom.
+
+Peregrine looked up as he said slowly: "Why not? He seems a decent
+sort of fellow--all nerves, though, I expect, but most men of his
+class are. But what has he been doing to upset you?"
+
+"Oh, nothing in particular, only I don't like him; can't help it,
+perhaps, but I hate him like poison. Why don't you get rid of the
+brute? He's been too long here. Is a sort of power in the place, and
+owns property. That's the sort of man who gets his palm greased, you
+know."
+
+"It's a very serious matter to punish a man for a fault you think he's
+going to commit. Still, as you say, he has too much power; but that
+can be remedied without resorting to anything like the measures you
+suggest."
+
+Hawkshawe shrugged his broad shoulders. "As you please; but if the
+crash comes, don't say I didn't warn you. However, I didn't come to
+talk to you about this, but to ask you if you think it wise to have so
+much money at Yeo. There's close on a hundred thousand there, and the
+engineer on the famine works a native, too."
+
+"What can be done? There is a strong guard, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, twenty men, and old Serferez Ali, my inspector, commands them.
+He's the best man in the service. Still, I think you had better bring
+in the money."
+
+"You think there is any danger?"
+
+"Absolutely none that I know of at present; but old Bah Hmoay has been
+so quiet of late that I'm afraid mischief is brewing, and one never
+knows what may happen."
+
+"We have, then, two alternatives before us--either to bring in the
+money or the greater part of it here, and send it out as it is wanted,
+exposing it to the danger of being stuck up, to use a slang phrase, on
+its passage, or to increase the police guard. Have we the men?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I can spare thirty men on Saturday, and will send
+them up then. With fifty men Serferez Ali could hold out against ten
+thousand dacoits."
+
+"Very well, so be it."
+
+"That's settled, then. Hola! what have we here, a _billet-doux?_" and
+Hawkshawe held between his finger and thumb the gray envelope he had
+taken from the messenger who brought it into the room and handed it to
+Peregrine. "Is the fair Ruys asking you to dinner?"
+
+For the life of him Jackson could not help the hot blood rushing to
+his face, and there was something inexpressibly galling in Hawkshawe's
+tone. "Excuse me," and he tore open the envelope. It was an invitation
+to dine, and as he put it down Hawkshawe made a further remark that
+stung him to the quick. He turned round upon his visitor and said
+shortly, "Supposing we drop the subject or drop each other."
+
+Hawkshawe stared at him, and then, pulling his cheroot slowly from his
+mouth, apologized awkwardly. "Didn't mean to offend you, old chap--beg
+pardon and all that--will come in and see if you can go out for a ride
+later on."
+
+He clanked out of the room and left Jackson to himself. Peregrine
+picked up the note and read it again, and there was again a struggle
+within him. Should he face or flee the temptation? He felt that the
+latter alternative was hardly possible, and then it would be cowardly.
+No, he was going to deliberately try his strength against himself; the
+battle should be fought out to the end. He would face the trouble and
+he would conquer. He felt that the love that had sprung into being,
+like Pallas, full armed, could only be conquered by grappling it by
+the throat. He could not run from himself, and he would not if he
+could. So he wrote a few lines accepting the invitation, and then,
+deliberately tearing Ruys's letter up into the smallest fragments,
+turned to his files and plodded on steadily. He must have worked in
+this way for at least a couple of hours when an unaccountable feeling
+told him there was some one in the room. He looked up, but saw no one,
+and was just about to turn to his work again when something was thrust
+over his shoulder, and, turning round, he saw Anthony Pozendine.
+
+"What is it, Mr. Pozendine?"
+
+Anthony could hardly speak. He stammered out something about Mr.
+Hawkshawe--abuse--damfool--and, placing his complaint on the table
+before his chief, stood bolt upright at attention, for he was a
+volunteer.
+
+Jackson patiently read every line of the four pages of foolscap, and
+then turned gravely on Anthony.
+
+"Mr. Pozendine, you are on very dangerous ground. If your story about
+the abuse is true, you have perhaps a little cause of complaint; but
+as for the rest, it is absurd. Do you know what you are saying about
+Mr. Hawkshawe?"
+
+"Yes, sir. It is true. I will go into court and swear; so also will
+Mr. Iyer."
+
+Peregrine touched a bell. "Send Mr. Iyer here," he said to the
+messenger.
+
+A minute after Mr. Iyer came. He stepped into the room briskly, seemed
+a trifle surprised to see Anthony, but said nothing. "Mr. Iyer," said
+Jackson, "Mr. Pozendine here says you are prepared to bear him out in
+certain statements he makes. Perhaps, Mr. Pozendine, you had better
+explain."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Anthony, while the Madrassee's face assumed an
+expression of the utmost concern.
+
+"You know what I have written here?" said Anthony.
+
+"No," replied Iyer, holding up a deprecating hand, "I know nothing."
+
+"Didn't Mr. Hawkshawe call me a damfool?"
+
+"Every one say so, but I didn't hear. I know nothing."
+
+"The man is frightened, sir," said Anthony to Jackson.
+
+"There is no necessity to be frightened, Mr. Iyer; you can speak
+freely."
+
+"Frightened!" said Mr. Iyer. "Why should I be frightened? I am an
+honest man, of a large family, and will speak the truth."
+
+Anthony's face brightened up as he asked, "Didn't Mr. Hawkshawe take
+money?"
+
+"Iyoo!" exclaimed the Madrassee, flinging up his arms; "I never heard
+these things. Sir, this man Pozendine is trying to get me into
+trouble. He is my enemy since long time. He one big liar," and the
+Madrassee shook a finger at Pozendine. "Mr. Hawkshawe take bribe! No,
+not Mr. Hawkshawe, but Mr. Pozendine. He take bribe from Bah Hmoay and
+Moung Sen over Dorian fruit--witness--all bazaar knows it. I will
+bring four--five--one hundred witness. Sir, this one big scoundrel!"
+
+It was too much for Pozendine; his nerves had given way, and with a
+scream he flung himself at Jackson's feet and grovelled there.
+
+"Pity!" he yelled; "I have twenty-four years' service--pardon!"
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+An hour later, when Hawkshawe came according to his word to see if
+Jackson would go for a ride, he found Peregrine apparently idling
+before his table.
+
+"Ha! I see you've found nothing to do; come along."
+
+"I can't," said Peregrine; "I want to think out something."
+
+"Oh, don't let that little affair of Pozendine's bother you. It didn't
+happen in your time, you know. You'll get all the credit of finding
+out about the bribery and corruption."
+
+"Do you know what has happened?"
+
+"Ain't I your Fouché? Are you coming?"
+
+"No, thanks. I must think this out."
+
+Hawkshawe turned and went, whistling gaily. Mounting his horse, he
+galloped down a long embankment along the river face, and then,
+reining in, stood apparently watching Pazobin robed in the glories
+of a wondrous sunset. "By Jove!" he exclaimed, "I very nearly made an
+ass of myself over that police guard. Anyhow, if this comes off, no
+more of it; but Ma Mie is getting dangerous. My nerve is not what it
+used to be, but--I must get rid of her at all risks. Damn that
+straight-laced fool Jackson! He's always bringing back recollections
+to me, and I, Alban Hawkshawe, can not afford to remember--to think
+that my honour was once as clean as the palm of my hand, and now----"
+
+He put spurs to his waler, and galloped into the gray mist that
+surrounded the forest.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+A week after, the big native rice boat that slowly made its way up the
+river to Rangoon bore with it two passengers. One, seated among a heap
+of brass pots and pans, surrounded by eatables, principally fruit,
+could be recognised as Mr. Iyer; the other, who crouched on a coil of
+rope, was Anthony Pozendine. Neither spoke to the other, but in their
+eyes was a sullen hatred which showed what their thoughts were, and if
+either had the courage there would have been murder on the big boat
+that worked its sluggish way upstream. One morning, however, the
+Madrassee spoke to his companion.
+
+"We are both ruined, Pozendine," he said. "What will you do?" Anthony
+made no answer, and Iyer went on. "There is only one chance--let us
+join together in Rangoon and tell all about Hawkshawe. We know true
+things, and government will give us back our posts. I swear by Krishna
+that I will be true; give me your hand."
+
+Pozendine stretched out his sticky fingers, and the hands of the two
+men met. Then they sat together and talked all day as if there never
+had been any enmity between them, planning the coup which was to get
+them back their post, with a mental reservation that when this was
+accomplished there was yet another account to settle.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                          THE RUBY BRACELET.
+
+              Once was my shield as white as driven snow,
+              Once was mine honour clean, and I, a man,
+              Could gaze upon my fellows, meet their eyes
+              With eyes as honest--but all that is past.
+
+                                                     _Old Play_.
+
+
+"See," said Ma Mie, holding her arm to the light and displaying the
+splendour of the bracelet, "is it not beautiful, Hawkshawe?" The pale
+amber of her silken robe fell partially on the jewels as she said
+this, and flinging it back with a graceful gesture Ma Mie again raised
+the soft outline of her arm, and with lips half parted gazed upon the
+red glow of the rubies with a childish delight. They were standing
+near a window of Hawkshawe's house, at the very window from which the
+light streamed out, a long banner of brightness, when Jackson went
+back from his solitary ramble on the jetty. The glare that dazzled
+outside fell softly through the bamboo _jalousie_, and warmed the
+scarlet of the rubies on Ma Mie's arm to a thousand different tints.
+
+A curious steely blaze came into Hawkshawe's eyes, and the wrinkles
+around them gathered into deeper folds as he bent over the gems. For
+the time the look of avarice in his features gave them a wondrously
+Jewish cast. His aquiline nose seemed to fall over his lips, and the
+lips themselves tightened into a long, hard outline. He gently
+unclasped the bracelet and held it in his hand, then he tossed it
+lightly in the air, and as it fell back like a star he caught it
+deftly. "The stones are of the purest water, Ma Mie, but I alone have
+the right to clasp them on you. Let me do so now." He fastened the
+jewel once more on her. "Now," he said, "they look perfect--now that I
+have put them on you myself, and you can feel that they have come from
+me. Is it not so?" He drew her toward himself, while all the time his
+eyes remained fixed on the gems with a terrible greed in their
+expression. She remained as he had placed her, her head leaning
+against his shoulder and her eyes half closed. "Shall I break it to
+her?" muttered Hawkshawe. "It has to be done very soon, and might be
+done now." They remained for a moment silent. "Ma Mie," said
+Hawkshawe, "would you be very sorry if I were to go away for a short
+time?"
+
+She looked up at him with a startled air and drew back. "You go away;
+you are not ill, are you? Yes, I think you are ill. You were ill that
+night when that man Jackson came to dine here and cast his spell on
+you. You have never been well since. At night I have heard you call
+out strange things. Yes, if you like, we will go away--you and I, to
+Ava; it is cool and pleasant there, and you will get well. You want
+rest, and you are tired. Is it not so? You said so that night." The
+woman seemed to know of the evil that hung over her, and was making a
+desperate fight. All the pleasure that had brightened her face left
+it, and left it in a moment haggard and wan. She had expected this
+crisis a hundred times, and a hundred times nothing had come. Still,
+the feeling that she was on the brink of a precipice never left her.
+She knew that some day would come to her, as it came to all women of
+her class, that parting which left the man free as air and the woman
+in reality still in an abyss. This spectre was always in shadow before
+her, unseen but felt, and now--she knew that it was coming--she gave a
+quick gasp after her speech and waited.
+
+"No, Ma Mie," said Hawkshawe, and he threw a very tender inflection in
+his voice. "No, we can not go together this time. I want to go home to
+my own country. I have not seen it for many years. I will come back
+again, and in the meantime you must wait for me at your home. You have
+money. This"--he touched the bracelet on the shuddering arm--"and
+other things. Besides, I will see that you have more. I intend to go
+in about a month, and it would be well if you were to start for Ava
+in, say, a fortnight. Bah Hmoay will take you--or shall I send for
+some of your people? There, don't cry!" He tried to draw her again
+toward him, but she broke from his arms with an angry sob.
+
+"You! you! you! To do this!" she gasped. "You, the father of my dead
+child! You, who vowed and swore--you, who came with humble entreaty to
+me! Oh, I was a fool, a fool! All women are fools, and all men liars!
+Do you think my heart is a stone? Have I not been faithful? Ah,
+Hawkshawe, do not send me away! See, I will follow you as a slave to
+the uttermost parts of the earth. Don't go; I know you are not coming
+back--don't," and she sank on her knees with a cry that came from the
+soul. It would have melted any heart but Alban Hawkshawe's.
+
+"Confound it!" he said, pulling savagely at his mustache, "I must end
+this somehow.--Look here, Ma Mie, look at the matter sensibly; don't
+be a fool."
+
+"Fool!" and she sprang up--"fool! Yes, I am a fool to have trusted
+you--trust a liar to lie!" and she laughed bitterly. "See, I have
+given you my all, I have given my soul for you, worthless as you are,
+and you are mine. You say you are going for a short time and that you
+will come back to me. You lie, and you know it! You never mean to
+come back. To think that you should perjure yourself at such a
+moment! You are mine, I say; I have paid too great a price for you.
+Where you go, I am; where you live, there shall I be. We shall never
+part--never--until that which we call death comes between us!"
+
+"Be sensible! I will give you plenty."
+
+"Ah, heart of stone! It is nothing but gold with you. Yes, I will buy
+you. Here, take this. Is it a fair price?" and, unclasping the
+bracelet, she tossed it to him with an imperial gesture, and it fell
+with a tinkling crash on the polished wood of the floor. Hawkshawe
+paled to an ashy gray. He raised his hand as if to strike the proud
+face before him, but his eyes sank as he met Ma Mie's fearless gaze,
+and his hand slowly drooped again. Then he stooped and picked up the
+bracelet. "It is worth ten thousand," he murmured to himself, and the
+elvish light in his eyes answered the wicked sparkle of rubies in his
+hand.
+
+Gathering up her robe, Ma Mie stepped out of the room with a breaking
+heart and head held erect and defiant, and when Hawkshawe looked up he
+was alone. He slipped the jewel into his pocket, and, going to a
+side-table, poured himself out a glass of brandy, and then another and
+another, and while he stood near the table drinking feverishly Ma Mie
+watched him through the curtain from the door of her room, her hand
+clasping the jade hilt of the stiletto she wore at her girdle.
+
+"Ah!" she thought aloud, "I could kill him now as he soddens himself
+with drink. But he is mine, and---- Oh, the shame of it! I love him!
+He is mine, and will remain mine if I have to drag his soul to hell!"
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                          THE SIRKAR'S SALT.
+
+              Have I not eaten the Sirkar's salt?
+                Wherefore then shall I tell a lie?
+              Wherefore lie? Nay, mine oath is true,
+                True as above us spreads the sky.
+              We lost, but a traitor hand was there,
+              And the soldier fell in the liar's snare.
+
+                                           _Lays of the Punjab_.
+
+
+Loo-ga-lay said it was only a mistake, but the childlike innocence of
+his face, his oaths and protestations, the twenty hired witnesses he
+brought to prove him guiltless availed him not, and the richly
+deserved three months' "rigorous" was duly awarded. With the giving of
+this sentence, the details of which are of no account, the official
+programme of the day was over, and Peregrine free from office routine
+until Monday morning. He was to see Ruys this afternoon, and her face
+appeared to flit before him and his heart bowed down to the vision;
+but he set his teeth and put away the thoughts that came whether he
+would or not. Was he not measuring the strength of his soul or will,
+as he would have called it, against the strength of his passion?
+He was going to pit the ideal against the real, and to his strong
+young heart the struggle could have but one issue. He knew--none
+better--that he was running a desperate risk, but there was no doubt
+in his mind that the danger had to be faced, and there was a curious
+pleasure in facing the danger. And all this war, which was to make or
+mar him, was to be silently fought out in the drawing-room of a very
+pretty woman. He found her there, looking the picture of repose, her
+little dog coiled snugly at her feet, and a yellow-backed novel before
+her. She put the book down with a smile as he came in, and held out
+her hand.
+
+"I am so glad to see you, Mr. Jackson. You must be horrified to see
+me, a parson's wife, reading a yellow-back; but it is Armorel of
+Lyonesse, and books like that make one feel good, do they not? One
+seems to want so much support to keep on the straight path through
+life."
+
+He picked up the volume from the table.
+
+"Yes," he said, "Armorel was a woman who would have made any man
+great. She was one to die for."
+
+"Or to live for, don't you think? I should certainly not like the man
+I loved to die for me."
+
+A subtle inflection of the voice made him almost start as he looked
+up, but the gray deep of her eyes was pure and unruffled. "I would
+rather," she continued, "die for the man I loved. I think women were
+made for sacrifice."
+
+"Don't you think that men are capable of it?"
+
+"Of sacrificing women--yes. Is it not done daily? Look at that man in
+this book--what do they call him? Ah, yes, Roland--Roland Lee. What a
+worthless wretch he was, to what an abyss he sank! Did not Armorel
+fling herself away on him? Is it not a terrible thing for a man to
+bind a pure woman to him, knowing that she must find out things that
+tell her her idol has feet of clay? Oh, yes! the woman builds herself
+such castles in the air, and how they crumble and fade!"
+
+"And does this never happen to man?"
+
+"I don't think so. I don't think that a man ever loves in the sense
+that a woman wishes to be loved." She bent forward and took the book
+from his hand as she spoke.
+
+The touch of her fingers almost made his limbs tremble as he put down
+with a mighty effort the rush of words that came to his lips. He said
+quietly enough, however, "I do not think you judge us fairly, and you,
+at any rate, have nothing to complain of." Not a muscle of her face
+moved as she folded the book, held half open in her hand, and placed
+it in a small wickerwork basket that stood on a table near her. Over
+this she cast a piece of embroidery work, and a moment after her
+husband entered the room. He greeted Peregrine cordially, and then,
+disjointing himself, sank into a chair with a weary look in his eyes.
+
+"Are you feeling very tired?"
+
+How the worn look passed from the man's face at his wife's question!
+"No, Ruys; tired--not a bit of it." Peregrine cut in here and asked if
+it was not an off day with the mission schools. "Yes, and that's the
+worst of it. It means that on Monday one has to start fresh again.
+Satan takes a long pull on Saturday and Sunday, and these Burmans seem
+to have a natural affinity for him."
+
+"I suppose I should hardly say it to you, but it seems to me we are
+beginning at the wrong end. We are giving these people the Gospel
+before they have been put in a state to understand it. How can they
+understand the greatest of all mysteries, which even we--I say it with
+all deference--do not understand?"
+
+"'Knock, and it shall be opened,'" quoted Habakkuk. "Mr. Jackson, I
+was once as you are, searching for a light, groping about in darkness
+and----"
+
+The flutelike voice of Mrs. Smalley intervened. "Come, and finish your
+speech in the garden. I have had my tea-table set out there, and it
+looks as if it were expecting us. Come along, Mr. Jackson, and come,
+husband."
+
+She put her hand slightly on Habakkuk's shoulder as she said these
+words, and the face of the priest shone with a great joy; but
+underneath the long lashes of her eyes she glanced softly on
+Peregrine. Jackson's honest heart rebelled against this; he felt that
+there was a double game being played, felt it indistinctly, but still
+that perception gave him a little extra strength, as if there was a
+flaw in the chain that bound him. Yet the thought was horribly
+disloyal to this peerless woman, to impute to her the motives of a
+common flirt, and it was with a conflict within a conflict in his
+heart that he took his seat on the rustic bench near the tea-table and
+watched the white hands of his hostess as she busied herself over the
+delicate teacups. Habakkuk declined to sit down. He helped himself to
+a huge slice of cake, and, holding this in one hand and his tea in the
+other, paced up and down ready to carry on the discussion. He cut a
+half-moon out of the cake with an enormous, bite, and, waving the
+remnants in the air, resumed his speech. "Wal, as I was saying, I was
+searching for a light. I had not then received my call to the
+ministry, and while hunting for food for the soul was compelled to
+shift round considerable for food for the body. I had taken my medical
+degrees, but the Lord was good to the folk of Derringerville, and they
+flourished and were strong. Hence I concluded to betake me down south,
+and near the Sierra Blanca found an ideal spot for a doctor. There
+were thousands of typhoid microbes in every square inch of air--in
+fact, it was where typhoid had its office--but the inhabitants were
+spry. At first they died rather than call me in, but Elder Bullin, a
+real smart man he was, convoked the estates one day, and then a
+deputation waited on me--there was Calvin Snipe, Dacotah Dick, and the
+elder himself. They drank the half bottle of whisky I had left, and
+then put the matter squarely to me. I was to be paid a thumping good
+salary as doctor to the town. If any one was ill, however, the salary
+should cease until he was well again or died; the committee was to
+decide in the latter event if I had done my best, and, if the decision
+was favourable, arrears would be paid me on the first clean bill of
+health. I was, however, bound down for five years, and, seeing I was
+on the hard pan, they offered to pay down an advance. I rose to the
+situation, papers were signed then and there, and Dacotah Dick paid me
+my advance on the nail. Next day the whole place was down with fever,
+and I went to work--had to take off my coat to it. There was, of
+course, no pay for me, but I had the advance, and rubbed along on
+that. By-and-bye the money dwindled away, and I was once more
+stranded. I applied for more, but was sternly refused. I then
+suggested resigning, and Calvin Snipe pulled out his six-shooter and
+asked if I could read the maker's name on it for him. Wal, things were
+looking very blue, so one fine night I----"
+
+"Good gracious! Here is Mr. Hawkshawe, and half a dozen men with him.
+I wonder what the matter can be? He is coming straight up to us." And,
+sure enough, there was Hawkshawe riding into the gate with a tail of
+policemen behind him. He halted the men with a quick order, and,
+dismounting, walked rapidly across the lawn toward the tea drinkers,
+accompanied by one who appeared from his dress to be a subaltern
+police officer. The man was travel-stained and bespattered with mud,
+and he held one arm tightly to his side as he leaned heavily on a long
+curved sword as if to support himself.
+
+"How are you, Mrs. Smalley? Very sorry to interrupt your tea party,
+but this is pressing business.--Good afternoon, doctor.--Look here,
+Jackson, they've looted the treasury at Yeo. Here is Serferez Ali, my
+inspector, who will tell you all about it--and great news, too, with
+the bad. I think we have that scoundrel Bah Hmoay redhanded at last. I
+heard you were here, and stopped on my way to tell you. I have, of
+course, made an official report; you will find that the garrison was
+weakened on the strength of a forged order from me--the order is with
+my report."
+
+Jackson was struck dumb for a moment by the enormity of the disaster;
+he found voice, however, to ask if the whole of the money had been
+stolen, and if Bah Hmoay had been arrested.
+
+"The money's all gone," said Hawkshawe, "and Bah Hmoay isn't arrested,
+but he will be, I hope, in twenty-four hours. In the meantime I've
+placed a watch on the pagoda, and now there is not a moment to lose.
+Stay"--he bent and whispered a few words in Jackson's ear, and then
+with a hasty good-bye turned and went off. When Hawkshawe had gone
+Jackson turned to the inspector and asked him to briefly detail what
+had happened. Dr. Smalley's knowledge of the language was of great
+help at this moment, and Serferez Ali, presenting the hilt of his
+sword for Jackson to touch, began:
+
+"I beg to represent that I was placed in charge of the money at the
+sub-treasury at Yeo with a guard of twenty men. Night and day the
+proper watch was kept. I have served the Sirkar for thirty years, and
+was I going to neglect this? On the night before last Moung Sen, the
+letter carrier, brought me a letter from Hawkshawe Sahib. That letter
+has been sent to you with the Sahib's report. It was a forgery, as
+Hawkshawe Sahib's letter will show; but I am a man little skilled in
+writing, and I obeyed. Ten of our men were ordered back next morning
+to Pazobin, as a disturbance was expected there, according to the
+letter. In the morning I sent back the ten men and told the engineer
+Babu what had happened, and said that until the guard came back
+payments should not be made, as there were not enough men to attend to
+these duties. The Babu sat down to write to you about it, and I
+determined with the few men I had to double my precautions. There was
+a bright moon that night, and during the day I had the trees near the
+treasury gate cut down, so that men might not steal upon us unawares.
+At eleven that night, after going my rounds, I sat down to my meal
+with Hashim Khan, a fellow-countryman of mine from the Punjab. As we
+sat down before the fire a shot was fired, and Hashim fell forward on
+his face a dead man. Then I heard the sentries coming back, and I knew
+the dacoits had attacked the treasury. There were nine men besides
+myself, and we answered the fire of the dacoits; but presently the
+woodwork of the building blazed up, and we, being choked with the
+smoke, had to come forth, having Beni Sing and Jowahir dead, and
+another, a man from Amritsur, was burned in the flames. Then we seven
+who were left formed in a ring, and the dacoits closed in upon us.
+With mine own eyes I saw Bah Hmoay, the priest, leading them on, and
+struck at him twice, but God preserves him to die at the end of a
+halter, and Moung Sen was there too, leading the robbers on. I will
+swear that I saw them, for the light of the burning building was as
+day. And we fought until all died, one by one, except myself, and I
+too had died but that fate preserves me to see Bah Hmoay pass to hell,
+and, making a dash into the darkness, I escaped. I travelled all the
+rest of the night and all day, only meeting Hawkshawe Sahib an hour
+ago----"
+
+He swayed gently backward as he said this, and Smalley caught him as
+he was falling. "He is wounded, I fear, and must be seen to at once."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+                           HIS LADY'S GAGE.
+
+                Belle Mabel gathered a blood-red rose,
+                To give to her own true knight.
+
+                                      _The Ballade of the Rose_.
+
+
+There was a price on Bah Hmoay's head, and if Moung Sen had come
+within the pale of the law it would have gone hard with him. Their
+stronghold in Pazobin was now a thing, of the past, for the pagoda was
+watched night and day, and every little township and village was
+placarded with a minute description of the robber priest and his
+lieutenant. When Hawkshawe dashed out in pursuit, after the first news
+of the robbery, he meant death to Father Fragrance. He was well aware
+of the truth of the proverb that dead men tell no tales, and assuredly
+Bah Hmoay would have found Nirvana if Hawkshawe had met him. The
+policeman made a forced march all that night, and in the early gray of
+the morning was at Yeo. He scoured the country for miles, and one by
+one the dacoits fell into his hands. And when, three weeks later, he
+was recalled to headquarters by an urgent letter from Jackson, there
+were but two left of the Knights of the Silk Cotton Tree--two of the
+ten who had taken the water of the oath--namely, the reverend priest
+and the Red Diamond. It is true that there were a number of others who
+had joined in the assault on the sub-treasury, and who, if caught,
+would have paid for their crime with their lives; but these ten formed
+the regular gang, and now eight of them were taken alive and two were
+hunted men. Old Serferez Ali recovered from his wound, which was after
+all but slight, took Hawkshawe's place on the track, and vowed by the
+prophet's head that Hashim's death should be revenged tenfold, for was
+not Hashim of Gugar Khan his father's nephew's cousin on the sister's
+side? Moreover, he was a friend, and it was not the law that would
+avenge his death, but Serferez Ali himself, who had learned many ways
+of doing this. Serferez swore that they should not hang until he had
+satisfied himself; the law could then work its will on what remained
+of them, and the grim old man, hollow-eyed and gaunt, was relentless
+in his pursuit. Information came to him somehow, and it was only the
+impassable jungles that saved the criminals from his vengeance.
+Hawkshawe was puzzled and annoyed at Jackson's letter recalling him to
+headquarters. He had been working splendidly when this sudden stoppage
+came. It will be remembered, however, that it was no ordinary interest
+that spurred him on. The priest knew too much, and Hawkshawe's one
+hope was to seal his lips forever, for now that he was hunted in this
+way there was no knowing to what the dacoit might turn and cling for
+safety, and it was in his power to do incalculable harm to, if not to
+ruin, Hawkshawe. And therefore it was galling to think that, after
+all, his prey had escaped him. As he rode back he pulled out and read
+the official letter he had received and thrust angrily into his breast
+pocket. There was nothing in it but an urgent request to come back at
+once. "Confound him!" said Hawkshawe, "he might have written a line to
+tell me what it was about." And it was with rage in his heart that he
+rode into his house and, flinging the reins to his groom, went
+upstairs. A big envelope marked "Urgent" was on the table, and Ma Mie
+was there, with a troubled look on her face. As he came in she could
+contain herself no longer, and with a cry flung herself on his breast
+and called out:
+
+"They have found out! they have found out! Fly, Hawkshawe!"
+
+"What the devil does this all mean?" said Hawkshawe angrily, and yet
+with a sickening foreboding in his heart. He snatched up the great
+brown envelope and read with whitening lips. It was, in brief, an
+order from government suspending him pending certain inquiries that
+were to be made, and adding as a rider that he was not to leave
+Pazobin until the final orders of the governor had been communicated
+to him. He did not notice a small note that dropped out from the
+official inclosure, but Ma Mie stooped and, picking it up, handed it
+to him. It contained a few lines from Peregrine telling him to keep up
+heart; that he, Jackson, was sure the charges were trumped up and
+would fall to the ground. The letter closed with an earnest assurance
+of sympathy and a brief intimation that his successor, Phipson, had
+already arrived, and was of necessity staying with Jackson, there
+being no other house available for him. The blow had fallen at last,
+and fallen just as Hawkshawe had almost completed his most brilliant
+departmental achievement. He guessed instinctively whose hands had
+struck it--the wretched half-caste Pozendine and his former enemy Iyer
+were leagued together in this. Perhaps they had no proofs, but that
+was, after all, a straw to clutch at. He knew he was guilty, and for
+the moment he was overcome. He sank back into a chair with an oath,
+and his hand slid of its own accord to the butt of his revolver; but
+Ma Mie was quick.
+
+"Not that way! not that way!" she cried as she clung to his wrist and
+wrenched the weapon away from his after all not unwilling hand.
+
+But a still more terrible trial awaited Hawkshawe, and that was the
+formal delivering over of his office to Phipson. He was treated with
+the greatest consideration, but this sympathetic treatment only added
+to the agony, though it was difficult to say who felt it most, honest
+young Phipson, with his soft heart, or the proud and guilty man whose
+place he had taken. When it was all over, Hawkshawe went back to his
+house and shut himself up, going nowhere--not even to his garden
+gate--doing nothing, but morosely sitting in his long cane chair
+smoking and drinking.
+
+"It is too cruel of them not to let the poor man go away," said Mrs.
+Smalley; and Habakkuk thought that if he were to go and see him
+Hawkshawe might be cheered up a bit.
+
+"There is no use, doctor," said Jackson. "I went myself, but could
+gain no admittance; perhaps it would be wiser to leave him alone. He
+will come out of this trial all right, I hope----"
+
+"If ever he lives through it," said Phipson, and they all understood,
+though no one spoke another word.
+
+Smalley now turned the conversation by speaking of a mission school he
+had founded at Dagon, which had flourished in so remarkable a manner
+that he almost thought it advisable to go and live there himself.
+
+"And leave Pazobin?" said Jackson. "Why, we couldn't do without you,
+doctor."
+
+Habakkuk was flattered at the compliment, and explained that after all
+it was only an idea that might never come to anything, and he and
+Phipson strolled off together to look at some plants, for Phipson was
+an amateur gardener and Smalley an enthusiast.
+
+Ruys and Jackson were, alone. "You surely do not think that Dr.
+Smalley will move to Dagon?" he asked.
+
+"Why not?" was the reply. "If his work takes him there, and he feels a
+call, he must go--and of course I."
+
+"I know," interrupted Jackson, "of course you will go also to aid and
+help him." Their eyes met, and his fell before the limpid light in
+hers.
+
+"Of course," she said slowly, "there is no other thing for me to do,
+unless I were to stay here and look after what is left. There is much
+to do, you know. And now take me to the garden. I want to see what
+those two are looking at."
+
+It was a wilderness of a garden for all Smalley's care, and one might
+easily have been lost in it. Side by side they walked down a pathway,
+and in the far distance they caught a glimpse of Phipson and his host
+poring over a row of flower pots. Jackson was about to keep straight
+on, when Mrs. Smalley deliberately turned into a bypath, and he
+followed her, admiring the perfect outline of her figure and the easy
+grace of her walk. "Isn't this an odd place?" she said, as on taking a
+turn they came upon what was evidently the ruin of an old temple. All
+that remained, however, was the plinth and a single griffin of
+monstrous size, that stood up above the shrubbery around it and glared
+down upon the intruders. "Fancy if such things really lived," and she
+dug the silver-mounted cane she carried into the plaster.
+
+"They did, I think, in the old days," replied Jackson. "It must have
+been just such a monster who guarded Castle Dolorous and carried away
+the White Lady to keep her a close prisoner."
+
+"And of course a youthful knight came and blew on a silver bugle, and
+then there was a fight."
+
+"Yes, and the knight won, and the fair lady gave him a gage to wear,
+and perhaps----"
+
+"Oh, never mind the perhaps--she gave him her gage, did she? What did
+she give?" and as Ruys said this she loosened with her hand a bunch of
+mignonette that was pinned to her dress.
+
+"Oh, a ribbon or a kerchief, or maybe a flower, and the knight wore it
+as a charm against all evil, and a light to guide him on his quest."
+
+"Yes," she said dreamily, "the good old days--I would we were now in
+them. I can not picture a knight in a tweed suit--can you? How would a
+gage look on that?" and with a sudden movement of her hand she placed
+the flowers against Peregrine's breast and held them there.
+
+"Will you let it rest there?" His voice sounded strange and hollow to
+himself. Ruys bent forward and fastened the flowers in his coat slowly
+and deliberately, standing close to him as she did this, and a mad
+longing came over the man to clasp her to him, to ask her to put her
+white arms round his neck and say she loved him, to tell her she was
+loved with a love that could only end with his death. But he held out
+somehow, God alone knows how, and when Ruys had pinned the flowers
+over his heart she said softly:
+
+"There, that is my gage; remember, it is to be an amulet to guide you
+to the right."
+
+The sweet scent of the mignonette floated around him, there was a
+dreaming look in Ruys's face as she met his look, and now her eyes
+fell before him, and she half turned her face away to hide the pink
+flush that came into her cheek. There was a moment of breathless
+anxiety to the man when he felt that he must yield, but he righted
+himself with a mighty effort as he said:
+
+"I will keep the gage forever, Mrs. Smalley, although I am afraid I am
+but an unworthy knight."
+
+Neither spoke a word after that, but, as it were, instinctively turned
+to leave a place which was so dangerous to both. They walked back
+together until they once more reached the broad road, and then Ruys
+turned abruptly.
+
+"I have got a headache, Mr. Jackson, and I think I will go in. Don't
+tell my husband; it is a mere trifle. See, there are Mr. Phipson and
+he talking; go and join them. I--I--want to be alone."
+
+She turned and walked slowly down toward the house, and Jackson stood
+still, staring after her with an uncomfortable feeling that her last
+words suggested an understanding between them that did not exactly
+exist. He bent his head down till his lips touched the flowers she
+gave him, and then he went forward to meet his host and Phipson. In
+the meantime Ruys reached her room, and, having carefully shut the
+door, deliberately proceeded to have a good cry. It was a sheer case
+of nerves with her, and the nerves had given way. She had played with
+edged tools and now found that they could cut, and began to realize
+that she was almost if not quite in love with this impassive youth.
+The woman was a curious mixture of good and bad. She laid herself out
+to do a wrong thing, and took a keen pleasure in so doing, then would
+come the reaction and bitter regret. She went down on her knees in an
+impulsive manner and prayed to God to forgive her sin, and she vowed
+then and there to dedicate her life to his service. Then she got up,
+washed off the traces of her tears, and came down to her husband. The
+mail had come in, and Habakkuk was seated reading his paper. "Have
+they gone?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," replied Habakkuk, "left about twenty minutes ago."
+
+She sat down on a rug near her husband's feet and rested her head on
+his knee. Habakkuk put down the paper he was reading and stroked the
+soft curls on her head with a gentle hand. She looked up after a
+while.
+
+"Did you mean what you said about going to Dagon?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, if you did, I want you to go at once, and take me with you."
+
+"Why, little woman, what is the matter?"
+
+She got up impatiently. "Oh, you men--you men! Will you never
+understand?"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                            AN ATONEMENT.
+
+       _Ruys_.--Can I give back? Well, then I will restore.
+                Death pays all debts.
+
+                                           _Maraffa: A Tragedy_.
+
+
+In a solitary room of his house, shut out from the light of day,
+Hawkshawe was drinking himself to madness and to death. The weary
+weeks dragged themselves on, one after the other, in connection with
+his case, and yet nothing was done beyond the order which kept him
+under judgment. The government had not as yet even decided what steps
+they were to take in the matter. Called upon for an explanation,
+Hawkshawe had sent up a long memorial, full, as memorials always are,
+of points that did not bear on the question. He clutched at any straw
+to save himself, and there was without doubt a good record of good
+work done by him. Practically, however, he was already condemned, and
+the governor had made up his mind almost as soon as he heard of the
+case. He was a man whose muscular morality could endure no
+backsliding, and the taint of the old days still hung around Burma. He
+had sworn to purify it, and he meant to keep his word. "These are the
+men," he said, referring to Hawkshawe, "that we want to get rid of,
+and any excuse should be seized upon, for they have dragged the name
+of Englishmen in the mud; of course, however, Mr. Hawkshawe must have
+every opportunity of defending himself."
+
+The head of the police, to whom these words were spoken, went away
+with misgivings in his heart about Hawkshawe. "He'll get over the
+bribery and corruption part of the affair," he said to a confidential
+friend--in other words, to his wife. "There's no real proof except the
+statements of those dismissed scoundrels and half a dozen other
+blackguards; but the other thing will smash him, and, with all his
+faults, he is very nearly my best man."
+
+"And he ought to be turned out," said the lady. "I have no pity for
+men like Mr. Hawkshawe."
+
+The chief remained silent, knowing that here argument was unavailing,
+but nevertheless he still regretted Hawkshawe's fate. And from this it
+will be inferred that a long connection with the seamy side of mankind
+had more or less blunted the fine edge of his susceptibilities, and
+that he was prepared to use any tools if they served his business,
+which was the suppression and detection of crime; and perhaps he was
+right.
+
+In the meantime Alban Hawkshawe slipped down with frightful rapidity.
+He was like a man sliding down a snowy slope beneath which yawned a
+precipice, and he was reaching the abyss at a frightful pace. He would
+have killed himself had he dared; once he had almost done so, but the
+little hole in the muzzle of the revolver he held to his mouth looked
+so pitiless that he drew it back shrinking. His nerves were weakened,
+and there was a terrible bodily fear of that death which he felt could
+alone be his release. It was open to him to have left Pazobin and run
+the chance of arrest; but the very attempt at flight would establish
+his guilt, and he was quick-witted enough to see that his only chance
+was to fight, and, although the waters were over him, yet his arm was
+stretched out to grasp the one little straw in which there might be
+safety. Strange as it may seem, he began to feel an injured man. There
+was the shame and indignity of being kept a prisoner at large, to feel
+that every one around him knew of his fall, to know that they knew him
+guilty, to know that they who crouched before him formerly were
+laughing over their opium pipes at his downfall. The very servants
+knew it. He saw this in their faces. These thoughts drove him faster
+and faster on his course, and he vainly tried to flee from himself in
+the stupor of drink. And then the time came when drink did not produce
+forgetfulness. But Ma Mie clung to him with the affection of a dog.
+She endured his abuse and his blows, for Hawkshawe had reached a stage
+when he was no longer restrained from violence because the object was
+a woman. The poor creature tried to keep him from his besetting vice;
+she brought out all her little arts which were once wont to please and
+to beguile, but to no purpose. Hawkshawe insisted on having her about
+him, but it was not to console; it was because he wanted some one upon
+whom to work off the fits of semi-madness that came on him. His
+servants fled in terror, and after a time he began to feel that he
+could not bear to be alone. His excited brain conjured up strange
+images about him, and finally the wild beast within the man awoke in
+its full strength, and he was no longer a human being, but had gone
+back to that early time when man was as savage as a tiger is now. It
+seemed as if the soul had flitted from him while he still lived. He
+had now got out of hand entirely, and Ma Mie dared not approach him,
+but she hung around trying to anticipate his wants and watching his
+progress with a sickening heart. Finally the time came when she went
+mad also, for one night Hawkshawe put a fearful insult on her. She
+drew her dagger to kill him, but he had strength to wrench it from her
+grasp and flung her to the corner of the room, where she lay stunned
+and bleeding. After a time she picked herself up and stepped out of
+the room without a look at the wretched Hawkshawe and his still more
+vile companion.
+
+"Order her to come back," said the woman who was with Hawkshawe; "I
+want her to attend on me."
+
+"So she shall," was the brutal reply. "Here, Ma Mie!" he shouted, but
+there was no answer. He got up and staggered to her room. It was
+empty, but from the open window he saw her figure as it flitted down
+the road, and a wailing sob reached his ears. "By God, she shall come
+back!" he yelled, and, bareheaded as he was, reeled out of the house,
+followed by the mocking laughter of the she-devil within.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+They had just dined, and Peregrine, leaning back in his chair, was
+listening to a plaintive little melody played by Phipson on his
+fiddle. Phipson fiddled; he did not play the violin, but his fiddling
+was very sweet and good to hear. He finished his little air with a
+flourish, and, resting the instrument lightly on the table before him,
+said, "I wonder you don't play something or other; it is a great
+distraction!"
+
+Jackson had no time to answer; almost as the words left Phipson they
+heard footsteps rushing up the stairs, and Ah-Geelong's voice raised
+in expostulation. The next moment Ma Mie burst into the room. She held
+in her hand a bundle of papers, which she flung before Jackson.
+"There," she half screamed, "I give him up; he is a double traitor! O
+Hawkshawe, Hawkshawe!"
+
+"Yes, Hawkshawe, Hawkshawe!" answered a mocking voice, and Hawkshawe
+stepped in, holding Ah-Geelong out at arm's length before him with a
+grip of iron. He shook the Chinaman like a rat, and, flinging him
+behind him, sprang straight at Ma Mie and struck a terrible blow at
+her. It was well that Phipson saw what was coming and hit up
+Hawkshawe's arm. The next moment the madman had flung himself on him,
+and the two rolled over together. "He's choking me, Jackson!" and
+Peregrine woke up as from a dream. With the assistance of Ah-Geelong
+he managed to free Phipson, but it took the united efforts of all
+three to hold the maniac down. Hawkshawe, when he found that he was
+overpowered, lay perfectly still for a moment, a white foam round his
+lips and his eyes shifting nervously about in their deep sockets like
+those of an ape. He then said quite quietly, "Let me up; the game is
+played out. I can do no more." Ah-Geelong gave a warning glance, and
+whispered to Jackson, "Plenty dlunk." But both Peregrine and Phipson
+felt that he would attempt no more violence, and, ordering the
+Chinaman to stand back, helped him to rise, which he did slowly, and
+then glared round him with his restless, fiery eyes. "Where is my
+wife?" he asked, and then they saw for the first time that Ma Mie had
+gone. The thought that she had escaped him seemed to rouse him to fury
+again. "Devil!" he shrieked, and made a dash for the door. Peregrine
+and Phipson were before him, however. "For God's sake, sit still and
+pull yourself together, Hawkshawe!" said Phipson. He looked at them
+and, throwing his head back, laughed, and his voice was as the howl of
+a beast. "Sit still! How can I sit still? There is something broken in
+my head; there are the fires of hell in my heart. A devil is ever
+leaning over my shoulder, and---- Ma Mie, you traitress, where are
+you? Let me pass," he shouted, "or I will---- Ugh! there it is!" He
+turned and, glancing over his shoulder, saw Ah-Geelong moving softly
+toward him, and then with a bitter curse sprang backward out into the
+veranda, and the next moment there was a dull thud below, and all was
+very still. They picked him up gently and bore him to Jackson's own
+room. Phipson ran for Smalley, and when Habakkuk came he looked at the
+man carefully. "I will do what I can," he said, "but no human art can
+save him; he is most fearfully injured. I doubt if he will live
+through until the morning." But when the morning came Hawkshawe was
+still alive, and when the sun sank he was not dead. There was one who
+came and took her place by the sick-bed as if it was her right, and
+neither of the three men had the heart to forbid Ma Mie. All through
+the long hours she never left him, and they were her hands that lifted
+his head as the last breath came and Alban Hawkshawe passed away. He
+never once regained consciousness, and it was only his extraordinary
+muscular vitality that kept him living for so long a time.
+
+When it was all over and Smalley had gone, promising to come again
+with the morning, Phipson and Peregrine went back downstairs to the
+dining-room and there sat up together. Sleep was impossible, and to
+both of them death like this was a new and terrible thing. It was then
+that Ah-Geelong came in softly and brought a message from Ma Mie to
+say that she wished to see them. "Ask her to come in," said Peregrine,
+and she came. She held in her hands a small inlaid casket, which she
+placed on the shining woodwork of the table. Her eyes were tearless,
+but her voice trembled as she spoke. "See," she said, "what was my
+husband is lying dead above, and dead in dishonour. I have come to
+make his memory clean and to restore----" With a quick movement of her
+hands she opened the casket and scattered its contents on the table.
+It was full of precious stones, and above them all coiled the ruby
+bracelet, and the evil light of the gems seemed to blaze and sputter
+through the night. "I restore, as he would have restored if God did
+not make him mad; here they are, jewels for which he sold his honour
+and I my soul. And now good-bye. You were good to him, and you saved
+my life. Ma Mie will never forget."
+
+They let her go without a word, and she passed out into the darkness
+forever from their sight.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+                  THE PATIENCE OF HABAKKUK SMALLEY.
+
+              To-night I pass the narrow straits
+                Which lead unto the Unknown Sea.
+              God, who knoweth the hearts of man,
+                Make Thou my pathway clear to me!
+
+                                         _Voyage of the Tobias_.
+
+
+Ruys's repentant fit soon began to pass away, and there seemed every
+prospect of an aftermath of backsliding. She had honestly and
+soulfully tried to mend, and for a few weeks everything went
+smoothly--at least outwardly--for there was a hard struggle going on
+within. Then she began to think the air was getting too pure for her
+to live in, and then in her desperation she again opened up the
+subject of the removal to Dagon, and to her surprise and joy found her
+husband met her more than halfway in this. She had no very definite
+object in urging the move beyond that it would enable her to flee an
+ever-present temptation. It would have been well for Smalley if he had
+seen what was going on, but Habakkuk had never gauged that wayward
+heart. With all his love for her, he had never been able to understand
+his wife. It was a mystery to him how she had ever come to marry him,
+how he had ever come to ask her to share his lot. She had accepted the
+offer in one of those capricious moods in which women of her nature do
+absolutely anything, and she was, in fact, nothing more or less than a
+refined and educated Ma Mie, without, perhaps, the rugged nobleness of
+the Burman woman. When she first knew Habakkuk he had just thrown
+aside a lucrative practice as a physician to enter the ministry with a
+view to going on the Eastern mission. This in itself was sufficient to
+attract an emotional woman, and there was something also in the innate
+nobleness of soul within his ungainly frame that drew her toward him.
+She had one of her "good" fits on. Here was something so very
+different from the smart young men of her set who worshipped the
+almighty dollar, and dreamed of the almighty dollar, whose one idea
+was to amass a fortune, and to whom a business operation which
+successfully brought a friend perhaps to ruin was a creditable thing.
+She felt that marriage with such an one was a moral abasement, and so
+she signalled, in that silent way that women know, to the strong and
+loving nature that was hovering near her, and he came at her call.
+Something within him, he knew not what, prompted him to speak, and he
+simply told her of his love, and turned to go. It never for one moment
+crossed him that he would meet anything but a refusal, and when she
+softly called him back and put her hand in his, he was unable at first
+to realize that his apparently absurd ambition had been crowned with
+success. They were married, and almost immediately left for the East,
+and almost as immediately Ruys began to repent of the step she had
+taken and wished herself back again. Those smart young men who
+worshipped the almighty dollar--after all, they were not so bad. She
+began to contrast them with her husband, and then she began to be
+miserable. Habakkuk saw this much, that she was miserable, and put it
+down to seasickness. By the time he reached Burma he reflected that
+his wife had about fifty different characters, and could slip on one
+as easily as she slipped on a dress. He was a sensible man and
+resigned himself to his fate, and then she trampled upon him because
+he yielded, and he bore it all with a silent misery eating at his
+heart. Then after a time his love seemed to sleep into a kind of
+intimate friendship; but Ruys saw this, and would fan it all up again,
+and, as soon as she succeeded, relapse into an icy dullness that made
+life almost unendurable. It was their last evening at Pazobin; the
+parsonage had been practically dismantled of its ornaments, and Ruys,
+with a straw hat in her hand, stood in what was once her very pretty
+drawing-room. Habakkuk stepped in with his slouching gait.
+
+"I wish," said she, "you wouldn't stoop so. Why don't you hold
+yourself up? There!" and she straightened him; "if you always carry
+yourself like that it would be so different."
+
+"I'll try," said Habakkuk. "I must enroll myself as chaplain to the
+Pazobin Volunteers. There are six men in the regiment, but I'll get
+drilled. Will that suit?"
+
+She was in a gay mood, and laughed blithely. "Yes, it will do very
+well, and I shall have to work some colours and give it to the gallant
+regiment. But you are not to go with them when they go fighting
+dacoits," and she came close up to him. Habakkuk for once plucked up
+courage, and, putting his arm round his wife's waist, kissed her, and
+to his surprise the caress was returned. He could hardly believe it,
+but she disengaged herself from his arm and said, "I want you to go
+down to the boats and see that everything is ready, like a dear; then
+you can come back for me, and take me on board."
+
+Habakkuk felt that he could have gone to the end of the world. He was
+off in a moment, and went away holding himself very erect.
+
+His wife looked after him with a strange smile on her face. "I have
+got him away for a good hour, at any rate," she said to herself, and
+stepping out into the garden walked slowly down to the ruined temple,
+and when she reached there she looked around as if expecting some one.
+"I wonder if he will come?" she said, and almost as the words escaped
+her Peregrine walked quickly across the side and came straight up to
+her. "I only got your note this minute, Mrs. Smalley," he said; "of
+course I was coming to see you off. It will be a great disappointment
+to Phipson. There was news which took him out this afternoon. Our
+friends the dacoits are to the fore again."
+
+"I thought you would come this way," she said, "and walked up here to
+meet you. Dr. Smalley will be back soon; he has gone down to the boats
+to see after things."
+
+"I wish I could have persuaded you not to go," said Peregrine. "You
+don't know what a loss you will be to us." The young man had won a
+great victory as he thought. Within the last few weeks Ruys's own
+attempts at escape had helped him. He had seen the struggle, and as he
+now stood over her his eyes were fearless with the strong light of
+power and resolve. Her knight--he had sworn to be her knight, and was
+wearing her token next to his heart. His hand should be the last to
+drag her down, and therefore his voice was kind and courteous, but
+nothing more, as he expressed his civil regrets at her departure.
+
+With Ruys it was different. She had taken a hasty resolve to have one
+more interview with Jackson, and then to say good-bye forever. She had
+determined to meet him here and ask him never to see her again, and
+now that the opportunity which she herself had foolishly made had come
+she was unable to speak, and her lips whitened as she stood still
+before him; and then he saw that she was crying, and took her gently
+by the hand.
+
+"Mrs. Smalley--Ruys," he said, "be brave. See, you are my sister; I
+will look to you for help and counsel, and will be as a brother to
+you. Be brave."
+
+And even as she spoke the floodgates were opened, and all the
+passionate woman spoke: "I love you! I love you! How can I be your
+sister? Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" And she burst into
+hysterical sobs, and the next moment was in Peregrine's arms, with her
+soft cheek resting against his shoulder and her heart to his.
+
+For one wild moment Peregrine forgot all. "My queen! my queen!" he
+said, and kissed her unresisting lips and held her to him.
+
+He put her from him, and as she stood with downcast eyes and trembling
+limbs before him, he spoke: "Good-bye; it must be good-bye forever
+now."
+
+She made no answer, but looked after his retreating figure with sad,
+dreamy eyes, and then with a white face and aching heart turned and
+walked backward to the house.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+"_My God, thou hast forsaken me!_" Never did cry more bitter come from
+the soul of the prophet than came from the heart of Habakkuk Smalley
+from the spot where he had watched the whole meeting and seen the
+parting of the two. He had been a witness to it all from start to
+finish, and only perhaps a priest could have restrained himself as
+well as he had done up to now. It seemed as if his life had crumbled
+away. He now knew what he had never expected, and like an inspiration
+the motives of his wife in forcing him to leave the place flashed upon
+him. After all, the temptation had been resisted, and who was he to
+judge. He thought of the lesson his Master had taught in a case of
+terrible reality, and was he, a priest of the Gospel, to stop at less
+than this? He kneeled down on the turf, and, holding up his arms to
+heaven, prayed. "God," he cried, "thou hast hunted me like a deer on
+the mountain side, and I am sorely wounded----" He could say no more,
+but gasped out "Strength! strength!" and then after a while a peace
+came upon him and he arose and followed the footsteps of his wife. He
+found her sitting in their now cheerless room, and her features seemed
+pinched and drawn. Never a word did Habakkuk speak of what he knew,
+but his voice was as kind and gentle as ever. "Everything is ready,"
+he said; "shall we go?"
+
+Now Ruys made no answer, but simply rose, and they went forth
+together.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+                       THE EPISODE OF LI FONG.
+
+                     "By the Prophet's head,
+                     He shall die," he said,
+                     "By the knife of the Khyberee!"
+
+                                   _Civil and Military Gazette_.
+
+
+Li Fong, contractor and general shopkeeper, was wearied of Dorian
+fruit, of _nga-pe_, and of Pazobin. Li was no "eleven o'clock
+chink "--that is, a Chinaman born and bred out of the Celestial
+Empire--but was a pure Hankow man, and had migrated to Burma with the
+philanthropic motive of spreading enlightenment among the outer
+barbarians, and to extract as much as he could out of the country he
+was honouring with his presence. But he was tired of Pazobin. Pazobin
+had no more to give, and for him the orange was sucked dry. His real
+business did not lie among the lead-foil packets of bad tea, with the
+cubes of China sugar, that crumbled to dust at the touch, with the
+inferior writing paper, the preserved ginger, and the pickled bamboo,
+with which his little shop was stocked. No, it had other and more
+paying ramifications, or Li could not have looked so sleek and
+comfortable as he sat in his cane chair beneath a green and yellow
+paper lantern and inhaled a long cigarette, the _soupcon_ of opium in
+the tobacco imparting a dreamy flavour to his smoke. But Li was not in
+his usual spirits. "Allee pidgin gone," his thoughts ran on; "Li he go
+too." Yes, this was true, too true. All business, really paying
+business, had gone since Pozendine and Iyer were swept away with other
+refuse, and there was nothing to be done with Mr. Pillay, who reigned
+in their place. Profits had come down to zero, for Mr. Pillay was that
+_rara avis_ of his class--an honest man. Li Fong's approaches toward
+him had resulted in Li's being treated with indignity, and, what was
+worse, in attracting the particular attention of Jackson toward the
+Chinaman. And when the special attention of a district officer is
+drawn to a person like Li, it is better for him or her to move on, and
+our sleek friend, fully aware of this, was on the eve of his
+departure. But he was going heavily laden. He had sold his shop, and
+was for this night a care-taker only. Honest Yen Chow, of Myobin, was
+the purchaser. Yen would come to-morrow, and then Li was free as air.
+He smoked his cigarette comfortably through, and dozed off slowly.
+When he awoke he found that the township was going to bed. It was not
+a bad idea, thought Li. He would do the same. He turned down the
+burner of the little kerosene lamp that was placed within the gaudy
+lantern, locked his shop door, and went inside. Here, in a little back
+room, in heat and stuffiness so great that only a Chinaman could
+endure it, Li Fong lived his celibate life. He lit a small lamp
+carefully and placed it in a corner of the room; then he kneeled down,
+but not to pray. He merely fumbled under a heap of bedding and pulled
+out a small box. His eyes sparkled with delight as he opened the
+casket, and he gazed at the contents with a smile of deep
+satisfaction. When he had gladdened his eyes he shut the lid slowly
+with a regretful snap, and put aside the treasure. There was one more
+delight before sleep came, and that was contained in his opium pipe.
+He lit this with a luxurious slowness, and then, stretched out on his
+pallet, smoked himself into paradise. What rosy dreams were Li's! He
+would be a mandarin of the green button, his ancestors would be
+ennobled, he might become an Amban! "To-mollow," he murmured to
+himself; but to-morrow never came to Li on earth. Li dreamed on, sunk
+in lethargy, and finally fell into profound sleep, and the lamp burned
+low.
+
+When he awoke again it was with the consciousness of physical pain,
+and behold! the lamp was burning brightly in the room.
+
+Two men were seated beside the light, and spread out on the floor were
+the jewels the little box contained. The men were arranging them in
+little heaps, counting them carefully. Li made a frantic effort to
+call out, but he was gagged. Then he rolled over toward the men, and
+the light of despair was in his eyes. "Keep him quiet, Moung Sen,"
+said one of the two, and the taller man held his sharp _dah_ over Li,
+who crouched still, making no effort to move. The other finished his
+counting, and then swept the jewels into a bag. Then he turned
+savagely on the Chinaman. "Beast!" he said, "and you were going away
+with the earnings of honest men!" Then, changing his voice: "What! and
+you wouldn't even come and say good-bye to an old friend--to poor old
+Father Fragrance! It was very wrong of you, Li Fong, very wrong."
+Moung Sen here pricked Li with the _dah_, and a shiver went over the
+limbs of the bound man. Bah Hmoay then spoke again. "To think that you
+can't even speak, Li Fong, that your wicked mouth is gagged, and that
+all my money--_our_ money," and he pointed to Moung Sen, "has come
+back to its rightful owners, and some more besides! Li Fong, you were
+going a far journey with all that wealth. You will now go a farther
+journey, where wealth will no longer avail you--where the gems of the
+world are useless. Li Fong, you are going to die!" If eyes could have
+spoken there would have been a piteous appeal for mercy, but being
+merely eyes they could only look words, not speak them.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+"I never knew a more atrocious thing in my life," said Phipson to his
+chief. "We found the poor devil with his throat slit from ear to ear,
+and on the wall of the room, scratched in charcoal, the respectful
+compliments of Bah Hmoay to you. Confound the brute! I'd give ten
+years of my life to see him swinging at the end of a rope!"
+
+Jackson rose from his chair and slowly paced the room. After six
+months of absolute quiet he had begun to think that the dacoit had
+disappeared with the destruction of his gang, when here came a fresh
+atrocity--an atrocity out-Heroding the others. It was too bad, and
+yet, after all, in his heart Jackson could not help admiring the
+daring of the man.
+
+"By Jove!" he said, "that fellow should be bottled and kept as a
+curiosity. Had he lived a hundred years ago, he would have died a
+prince."
+
+"He'll die very high up," grunted Phipson.
+
+"The inspector sahib has come on urgent business," announced an
+orderly.
+
+"Tell him to come in," said Phipson, and Serferez Ali entered the
+room.
+
+He explained briefly that he had at last a clew to the hiding place of
+the dacoits, and begged permission to start off at once.
+
+It is needless to say that this permission was readily granted, and
+Phipson himself expressed his intention of accompanying the party. He
+noticed, however, the shade of disappointment that passed over
+Serferez Ali's face as he said he would come, and, being a generous
+young fellow, guessed its meaning. It was as if the old man had said,
+"Do not rob me of the honour," and the mute appeal won its way. "No,
+on second thoughts, I don't think I shall come, Serferez."
+
+"May you end as a lord sahib!" said the inspector. "By sunset the
+heads of the base born will be in your veranda."
+
+"Take a strong body of men with you, inspector," said Jackson, and
+Serferez said, "Huzoor!" saluted, and went out. He passed down the
+drive with rapid strides, and regained the police barracks with all
+speed. Here he picked out half a dozen men, and in a few minutes they
+were in a long snake boat rowing steadily and swiftly toward the great
+silk-cotton tree.
+
+"One thousand rupees for Bah Hmoay dead or alive, and five hundred for
+Moung Sen, my children," said Serferez from the tiller, "and I will
+give up my share. You can all cut your names after this and go back to
+the grants the Sirkar is giving on the Chenab without fear of that
+jackal's spawn, Shankar the bunnia. Ahi! for the five rivers, but
+Serferez must die here--die in the swamps of this ill-begotten land."
+
+"Aho!" grunted the bearded Sikhs, and the boat fairly hissed along the
+water. It was a long row and a stiff row against the main stream, but
+presently they entered the backwater, and the boat slid like a huge
+saurian on the ooze. They passed deeper and deeper into the jungle,
+which hung so thickly about the creek that the men had to stoop below
+the gunwale to prevent the branches from stopping their progress and
+the terrible thorns from doing them injury. Finally they could proceed
+no farther; so tangled was the maze of forest, so thickly did it
+overhang the water, that it seemed as if the creek ran into the bowels
+of the earth with a sudden abruptness. Very softly did Serferez ground
+the boat, and one by one they all stepped out. "Stay you here and look
+after the boat," whispered Serferez to the youngest of the men. "And,
+fool! don't sit in the boat, but hide _here_--_here_ in the bushes,
+and keep your eyes and ears open. Shoot the first Burman who comes
+near it dead. Don't waste time in asking questions. Remember this, or
+you will never see the white hills again, I swear by the Prophet's
+head!" and he tapped his sword hilt significantly. After this no word
+was spoken, but the five men with Serferez at their head made their
+way in Indian file through the forest. Sometimes they were able to
+walk, but most frequently they had to resort to the tedious process of
+crawling through the jungle on all fours. They dared not use their
+_dahs_ to cut the underwood, for the slightest sound might alarm their
+quarry, and many a detour had to be made to find a passage. Serferez
+himself acted as guide, and he made no mistakes. Finally they came to
+the little clearing, and halted on its borders. A little to the left
+the huge silk-cotton tree reared its white trunk and spread out its
+huge ghostly arms like a forest giant struck with white leprosy. It
+was in full bloom, and the magnificent scarlet and orange of the
+bombax flowers starred its foliage, and ever and anon dropped with
+soft heaviness on the turf below. But it was not this, nor the
+hummingbirds that dipped their long beaks into the red cups of the
+flowers, that made the eyes of the men watching from the jungle
+lighten and Serferez's lips to draw back with a tigerish snarl.
+
+There, under the tree, not forty yards away, seated, smoking
+comfortably, were the two men whom they had sought for so long. Two of
+the police put up their rifles, but at a glance from their chief put
+them down again. "Alive," he whispered; "you two go round and then
+rush them; they will come straight at us, and then----" The two men
+sidled off like snakes noiselessly through the damp undergrowth. Moung
+Sen now began to sing in a droning voice:
+
+
+                    "Mah Se hath a dower of roses,
+                       Mah Kit hath a dower of pelf;
+                     And I sigh for the scent of the roses,
+                       But die for the gleam of the pelf."
+
+
+"But die for the gleam of the pelf," echoed the priest sonorously.
+
+
+                    "Mah Se hath the grace of an angel,
+                     Mah Kit she is crooked and old."
+
+
+Crack! went the sharp report of a police carbine, and a bullet
+whistled harmlessly over the singer's head.
+
+"May hell burn those fools!" shouted Serferez. "Come on!" and almost
+before the words had left him he was on the dacoits. The Boh sprang
+straight at him, and aimed a terrible cut at Serferez. He parried
+this, but it shivered his sword to splinters, and would have killed
+him on the spot but for the folds of his turban. It bore him on his
+knees, however, and had Bah Hmoay been allowed a moment's more time
+Serferez would have slept in paradise. But the opportunity was not to
+be lost; without a second's hesitation the dacoit chief sprang off,
+and, cutting down another man with a back-handed sweep of his long
+dah, dashed into the jungle and was lost. Not so Moung Sen. The
+minstrel was overpowered at the outset, and was now sitting like a
+trussed fowl securely bound with the long coils of a couple of
+turbans. Serferez had regained his feet, and shouted out, "Who fired
+that shot?" One of the men explained that his rifle had gone off by
+accident--caught in a twig.
+
+"You are a liar, Bullen, son of Bishen!" said the inspector; "and that
+shot of yours has cost us a thousand rupees. Still, one remains in the
+net.--Ho, Moung Sen! Red Diamond! Do you remember me? I have come to
+pay back the debt I owe you."
+
+Moung Sen made no answer, but strained at the bandages that bound him
+until the muscles of his arms swelled out like knotted ropes.
+
+"He will be very heavy to carry to the boat, will he not, my
+children?" said Serferez. "And the law is uncertain--he may not hang."
+
+"And nine men from the Doab died that day at Yeo," said one.
+
+"We get no more for his head than for the rest of him," added another.
+
+"And he attempts to escape," said a third, pointing to the man, who
+strained desperately to free himself.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+In the dusk of the evening seven men of the Sikh police rolled out
+something from a cloth at the feet of Phipson.
+
+"May it please the Feeder of the Poor," said Serferez, "the base born
+attempted to escape as the other did, and there was no way but this,"
+and he held the grinning head of Moung Sen out at arm's length before
+him.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                            AN OVERREACH.
+
+              Saddle me straight the red roan mare,
+                  She of the Waziri breed;
+              The wings of death are beating the air,
+                  Hola! the Waziri steed!
+              The wings of death are fleet and strong,
+              But we win the race, though the race be long.
+
+                                           _Lays of the Punjab_.
+
+
+"Ruys, would you like to go home?"
+
+"Home! This is my home, is it not?"
+
+"You know what I mean," said Habakkuk. "This is getting too much for
+you," and he stopped in a hesitating sort of way. A sad little smile
+lit up his wife's face--a face that had grown stronger and braver with
+the soul struggle of the past year. It was changed, too; the old
+brightness, the old vivacity had gone, but there was a serious light
+in the eyes that told of battle fought and victory won. And Habakkuk
+missed that old brightness and saw not the struggle. He was always
+dull, even if he knew how to suffer and be strong. But he thought that
+his wife was dying for freedom, and he vowed in his heart that, in so
+far as he could give her freedom, she should be free. Home--yes, home
+was the best place for her. He would never see it again, but she would
+be uncaged. He was not rich in the world's goods, and what he had he
+gave freely to the cause for which he laboured; but he held his hand
+back now, and during the past year the cause had suffered in this
+respect. But this little wrong was necessary to lighten a stricken
+heart. And while he thus laboured his wife saw it all with a woman's
+quickness, and inch by inch he was gaining ground, unknown at first to
+herself and through all utterly unguessed by him. At last the summer
+madness of the past drifted away, at last she began to realize, and
+just as she had done so this blundering fool asked her to go. It was
+too bad! After all, she had her woman's rights. Why did he not try to
+win her back with soft words? A new softness, a new mistrust of
+herself had come over her, and she could not speak. And then she
+dissembled and evaded the question. "I am very well," she said; "there
+is nothing the matter with me."
+
+Smalley made no answer, and his wife, rising, went to the door and
+then stopped. For a moment the thought flashed upon her that she would
+ask him to come with her as far as the schoolhouse of Dagon. But he
+saw nothing in her hesitation. Finally she left him and went to her
+daily duties; but as she walked down the grassy lane that led to the
+school she thought to herself that if he had made any advance, ever so
+little a one, that she would have spoken. After all, this was part of
+her punishment, and she should bear it, her thoughts ran on.
+
+"Alms, in the name of the Buddh!" An old man, shaking with palsy, held
+out a gourd to her, and Ruys gave to him and walked on. The beggar
+picked out the coin from the calabash and poised it lightly on his
+finger. The palsy had all gone now, and his hand was as firm as a
+rock.
+
+"Three times," he muttered to himself--"three times has my hand been
+crossed with silver to-day. By God! I have him now. Thanks to the
+chattering tongue of that servant girl, I know her secret and his. I
+will strike _there_--_there!_"--and he pointed to the retreating
+figure--"and this will make him live with a heart wound. For a whole
+year have I waited and worked and planned, and now the time has come.
+Oh, that this were the day! But I will not disregard a single omen.
+Thrice crossed with silver, therefore the third day from this.
+Courage, Bah Hmoay!"
+
+Once more palsy stricken, his feeble steps tottered along the lane and
+led him toward the pagoda. There at the feet of one of the two great
+griffins that guarded the gate he crouched, swinging himself backward
+and forward, and ever and anon calling out, "Alms, in the name of the
+Buddh!" So he sat until about the hour of sunset, when the womanfolk
+of the place gathered to the temple, and then he saw one whose stately
+step and carriage were unmistakable. It was Ma Mie, and as she passed
+by he called out her name softly, and she turned with a start. At a
+glance she recognised him. "_You_ here!" she said with a little gasp
+that choked the word "devil!" which she hissed under the breath.
+
+"Yes, but not alone. Where can we speak?"
+
+"Come to my house; my mother is there, and there is no harm in
+listening to the advice of a holy bonze."
+
+"Ever ready with your tongue as usual," said the dacoit as he rose,
+flung his saffron robe loosely around him and followed her with feeble
+steps.
+
+And as she led him toward the house Ma Mie was thirsting for revenge.
+Here, here was the man who had led her into disaster, and he, above
+all others, with a price on his head, was walking beside her, going to
+her own house. The old fox was noosed at last, and it was with a
+beating heart that she led him into her house, where her mother, old,
+wrinkled, and hideous beyond measure, mumbled out a greeting.
+
+"See, mother, this is a friend, a holy man, whom I have brought to
+rest here a while. I knew him in the old days, and he has something to
+say to me."
+
+The hag chuckled out: "He is too old for a lover; let him speak, I
+will not be in hearing," and she went out of the door and sat hard by
+on a rude seat at the foot of a large palm tree.
+
+"Now, what is it you want here?" said Ma Mie; "you with a price on
+your head!"
+
+"You, at any rate, will not give me away."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"First, because your brother is one of us, and lies sick in a place I
+know of; if I am lost, so is he--I have but to speak a word; and,
+secondly, because you want revenge, and I offer it to you."
+
+Ma Mie dropped her eyes for a moment to hide the fierce light that
+came into them, and pretended to adjust the rich folds of her
+_tamein_.
+
+"Yes," she said slowly, "I want revenge," and she looked at Bah Hmoay
+straight in the face.
+
+"Then listen; I want your help. I am not alone, as I said. Away in
+the swamp lie twenty good men who would raze this place to the ground
+if anything were to happen to me. I, too, want revenge, and upon
+Jackson--he who ruined your husband, he who has hunted me until I live
+a beast of the field. I could kill him at any time, but that is not
+enough. I want him to live with a wound on his heart from which he
+will never recover. I will kill him afterward if it suits me, and
+now--stoop--see here," and the dacoit rapidly whispered to Ma Mie
+words that made her start back and say, "No! no!" "But I say
+yes--think of it--it is a vengeance worthy of a Burman. We will sack
+the place on the third night from this, and but one shall be spared. I
+shall take her to my swamp, and she shall live as my slave; but these
+white women are delicate, and I do not want her to die _yet_. I want
+your help, therefore--a woman needs a woman. Soh! You understand? You
+can name your price."
+
+"Vengeance has no price," said Ma Mie, "and I agree."
+
+"So be it," said the dacoit. "Then you will be ready?"
+
+"Yes," she replied; "and now go."
+
+"My blessing," and the dacoit rose and tottered out of the room.
+
+"Ho, mother!" he said as he passed the old Mah Kit, "the night air is
+chilly for old bones; you had better go in."
+
+"Old bones," the hag mumbled--"old bones, but eyes young yet, young
+yet. There is devilment abroad. What is it, daughter?" she asked as
+she entered the room.
+
+"It would have been death, mother, had he stayed another five minutes.
+I would have put my dagger in his heart. But let me be; I will tell
+you all. I must think."
+
+And she sat moodily slowly drawing the point of her stiletto in little
+crosses on the wood flooring. An hour or two passed in this way, and
+then Ma Mie looked up.
+
+"Mother," she said, "I am going on a journey. I shall be back on the
+third day from this. If _he_ comes, make some excuse. Listen, it will
+be worth a thousand to us."
+
+"Clever girl! clever girl!" said the hag; "leave it to Ma Kit. I know
+now. Oh, yes, I know many things that nobody else knows. He! he! When
+are you going, child?"
+
+"Now," said Ma Mie. "The little steamer touches here at ten to-night,
+and it now wants but a half hour to the time."
+
+Her packing arrangements were of the simplest character, and an hour
+later she was leaning over the side of the small steamer that plied
+between Dagon and Pazobin, with burning revenge in her heart and a
+long cheroot in her mouth--bathos and tragedy hand in hand. The
+morning brought her to Pazobin, and she went straight to Jackson's
+house. To her dismay, she found he was not there--he had gone to the
+district the night before, and Phipson with him. Then she bethought
+her of the native deputy magistrate; but he was a Burman, and she
+doubted him. Finally she thought of old Serferez Ali, and, seeking him
+out, poured the information into the old man's ears. It was not the
+reward she wanted, it was revenge; but not revenge upon Jackson, but
+upon the fiend who had tempted and was now tempting again to drag her
+to the lowest deep. "Is all this true, girl?" said the inspector, and
+Ma Mie merely looked at him in reply. He was satisfied. "Go back at
+once," he said; "the dispatch boat leaves this afternoon; you will be
+there by the early morning; and stay--not a word of this to a soul.
+You have money?"
+
+Ma Mie laughed. "Yes," she said. "And see, I will add five hundred
+rupees to the government reward if you have him this time." She turned
+and was gone.
+
+"Light of my eyes! thou art gone," said Serferez to himself. "Fool
+that I was not to recognise her! But, Allah! this is no time for
+words. Bullen! Bullen! thief from the Boab, saddle me the roan
+mare--and listen, on your head! Bear this telegram, and let it be
+despatched at once. I want the police steamer at Myo to-night; and
+you, sergeant, be ready with twenty picked men at the quay to-morrow
+morning at seven. Soh! Is the mare ready? On your heads, see that my
+orders are carried out to the letter." He swung himself into the
+saddle, and five minutes later was Debte riding at a breakneck pace to
+Jackson's camp.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                            PALLIDA MORS.
+
+              Ah! woe is me! They brought him home,
+                  My winsome knight of Dee:
+              On lances four my knight they bore,
+                Who died for love and me.
+
+                                                   _Old Ballad_.
+
+
+Three men ride through the shivering moonlight--ride with teeth set
+hard and eyes that looked straight before them. Neck and neck they
+race across the open, and then the man on the left mutters a curse as
+they come to a stretch of rice fields. The long rice stalks seem
+planted in plate glass, but it is only water. Under the water lies
+three feet of mud, and beyond, like a huge dismasted hulk, rises the
+solid outline of the forest. The fields are divided by narrow
+embankments, and, as it is impossible to gallop through the quagmire,
+they resign themselves to circumstances, and pick their way slowly
+in Indian file across the narrow ridges that separate the sloppy
+water-logged fields. Yet they speak no word. After a time, short in
+itself, but which seems endless to the leader, they reached the end of
+the rice ground, and then the foremost horseman spoke.
+
+"Good God! must we crawl through this as well?"
+
+"By your favour, sahib, the road is to the right. Let me lead."
+
+There is a scatter of dead leaves, and Serferez, galloping forward,
+plunged into the dark archway of foliage. Through its deep gloom they
+race, and the hoofs of the horses fall with a dead sound on the damp
+bed of leaves below them.
+
+Shurr-r-r-sh! A sound of wild boar plunges into the thickets, with
+much grunting and hubbub over the strange sight that flashes past
+them. The old boar peers after the horsemen with his bloodshot eyes,
+the white foam hissing round his tushes, then with a peculiar
+long-drawn moan of anger he turns and shambles slowly after his tribe.
+
+Light at last!--the fires of a native hamlet and the indescribable
+odours that always hang around it. They dash past. There is a yell of
+rage from the napless yellow pariah dog, roused from his sleep in the
+middle of the road. He was nearly killed, and he protests vigorously
+against such reckless riding. A chorus of his fellows take up his
+complaint, and the riders push on amid a storm of howls.
+
+"Don't think this beast will hold out," said Phipson suddenly. The
+horse was almost staggering in its stride under him, and he knew by
+the ominous way in which the poor animal seized the bit between his
+teeth at intervals and flung forward his head that it could not keep
+up the pace for long.
+
+No one answered, for at that time the loud, deep whistle of a steamer
+reached their ears, ringing through the woods with echo upon echo.
+
+"Allah ho Akbar! 'Tis the steamer!" shouted Serferez.
+
+"Thank God!" came in deeper tones from the very hearts of the two
+Englishmen. The horses themselves seemed to know it. Brave hearts!
+They had won a race for life, and ten minutes later kind hands were
+rubbing them down on the deck of the little Beeloo, and the old
+Panjabi was purring over the neck of his roan.
+
+"There is none like thee in the land, my pearl," he said softly as he
+stroked her silver mane--"there is none like thee in the land. By the
+Prophet's head, I swear that for this night's work I will never forget
+thee--never!"
+
+"What's the time, Phipson?"
+
+"Two thirty," said Phipson, holding his watch out to the broad
+moonlight. "We reach Pazobin at seven to-morrow, pick up the men, and
+go straight on."
+
+Peregrine made no answer, but his white face as it shone out of the
+moonlight almost scared Phipson, so fixed and rigid was its look.
+
+"I say, Jackson!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That was a devil of a ride. Think I'll turn in and take a nap, and
+you'd better do the same." This was the policeman's way of telling his
+friend he looked worn to death.
+
+"No, thanks, Phipson, I can't sleep; I must see this thing through."
+
+Phipson stretched himself out in a long cane chair and watched his
+friend as he paced slowly up and down the small quarterdeck. "He must
+be devilish keen," he murmured to himself, "or devilish hard hit."
+
+And then all the starlight seemed to dim, and he was asleep. In the
+white mists of the morning they reached Pazobin, and, taking on board
+their men, started on at once. Phipson had persuaded Peregrine to
+rest. "Look here," he said, "this is all Tommy rot! You've got to
+rest. Have some grub first, throw away that infernal cheroot, and go
+and lie down. You've _fighting_ to do this evening, and will want your
+head and your nerves in first-rate order."
+
+There was no gainsaying this, and after lunch Jackson fell into a deep
+sleep. He was aroused by a scrunching noise, and woke with a start.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"The matter is that it's half-past six, and that damned idiot of a
+_serang_ has stuck us fast into a sandbank, and we can only get off
+with the next tide. There's only one thing to be done. Get the boats
+from Thomadine village and row for it."
+
+Thomadine village was half a mile below, but a small boat had raced
+them as far as the scene of the disaster. Matters were rapidly
+explained to the occupants of the boat, the explanation was made clear
+by the line of shining barrels that was pointed toward them, and they
+pulled up alongside the Beeloo. Some of the crew were temporarily
+transferred to the steamer, three or four policemen took their places,
+and the long canoe danced back to the village. It was fully an hour
+before it returned, bringing with it two other canoes, and, leaving
+the police tug with strict orders to come on with the next tide,
+Jackson and his men embarked in the boats, and, hugging the bank,
+rowed for their lives. It was no time for words, no time for anything
+but to strain every muscle to reach their goal. Suddenly a broad sheet
+of flame lit the sky, and the reports of half a dozen matchlocks rang
+out in quick succession; then came the short, sharp crack of a
+Winchester, then another and another.
+
+"By God, they've begun!" shouted Phipson. "Row on, you devils!"
+
+"There's a short cut by the creek, sahib!" called out Serferez, and
+the snake head of the leading boat, steered by Jackson, turned
+promptly round, and with a little white sparkle of foam fizzing over
+her bows she shot into the creek, followed in quick succession by her
+fellows.
+
+The sky was one sheet of light, for the village had been fired in
+several places, and the houses blazed up like touchwood. Long forks of
+flame from the mission school sprang up to the sky, and a dense cloud
+of smoke rolled westward with the breeze. Still the Winchester kept
+speaking, and every shot gave the rescue party hope, for they knew
+that Smalley was selling his life dearly.
+
+"We divide here into two parties," said Phipson as they landed. "You,
+inspector, take six men with you, and make for the boats. We will
+drive on to you. By God," he added, pulling his revolver out, "I
+rather think we're only just in time!"
+
+Serferez needed no second bidding, but was already off, and Jackson
+and his companion marched rapidly forward.
+
+"We'll give them a volley from here," said Phipson as they reached the
+skirts of the clearing round the little mission school, about which
+the firing was concentrated. "By Jove! they're going to batter down
+the door. Steady, men! Fire!" The crackling of the volley was followed
+by a cheer, and in a moment the police had rushed forward and were
+engaged hand to hand with the dacoits. Some one sprang straight at
+Jackson, but his hand seemed to lift itself up of its own accord, and
+a second after a huddled mass lay before the smoking barrel of his
+revolver. The issue was not one moment in doubt, and in a few seconds
+the dacoits were heading straight for their boats. Here they were
+intercepted by Serferez and his party, who gave them a warm reception.
+Three or four of the dacoits, however, among whom was the Boh, secured
+a boat and rowed off for their lives.
+
+"Follow them!" shouted Jackson, springing into the snake boat; "not a
+man must escape!" Phipson and a few others took another boat, and
+there was a hot pursuit. The dacoits realized, however, that it was no
+use, and, evidently resolving to die fighting, ran their boat ashore
+on a small island near the middle of the river and took to the
+thickets, from which they began a smart fire.
+
+"Go behind, and take them on the rear," called out Jackson to his
+companion. Almost as the words were spoken Phipson's boat turned to
+the left and was round the head of the little island.
+
+"Sit down, sahib; don't stand up--we are quite close to them now,"
+said the _naick_ of police, who was in Jackson's boat. Peregrine
+laughed, and the next moment the _naick_ uttered a cry of horror, for
+a red tongue of flame shot out of the covert, and Jackson, flinging
+his hands up, fell forward on his face with a gasping sob.
+
+With a yell of rage the police grounded their boat and rushed into the
+jungle. There was but half an acre of ground, and Bullen, son of
+Bishen, Sikh from the Doab, had gone Berseker.
+
+As the men landed the dacoits made for the opposite side of the little
+island, but to their dismay found Phipson there. With a curse Bah
+Hmoay darted back into the cover, followed in hot haste by Phipson.
+And here in the uncertain light, where the jungle was so tangled that
+there was barely room to use a sword, there was a short but desperate
+fight. "Come on, Jackson, we have the lot here! Where on earth are
+you?" shouted Phipson as his revolver barked out like a snapping pup,
+and one of the dacoits fell dead, and another, staggering backward,
+was finished by a policeman with his _dah_. "Where are you, Jackson?"
+called out Phipson again.
+
+"Jackson is in hell--where you will follow him!" and the Boh sprang at
+Phipson like a panther. A projecting branch saved him from the
+downward sweep of the long _dah_, the revolver snapped out again, and
+the next moment they had grappled each other by the throat.
+
+"I'm afraid it's no use, Bah Hmoay," said Phipson as he shook off his
+assailant like a rat, and, throwing him heavily, placed the barrel of
+his revolver against his temple.
+
+Click! click! The handcuffs were on him like a flash of lightning, and
+the Boh was surrounded by a group of men.
+
+"This is Bah Hmoay himself," said one of the policemen as he held a
+rudely improvised torch at the face of the captive.
+
+"There isn't another of them alive on the island," said Bishen. "Two
+were killed by your honour, two I have accounted for, and this is the
+last."
+
+"Where is the sahib?"
+
+"He awaits you in the boat," said Bishen, and a chill went through
+Phipson's heart.
+
+"Why--what is the matter? Speak, can't you?"
+
+"The doctor sahib will tell. Some one from the island fired, and the
+sahib, he was standing, fell back in the boat; but the doctor sahib's
+knowledge is great. He will live."
+
+Bah Hmoay was subjected to the indignity of being frog-marched to the
+boat. He was flung in without much ceremony, and a loaded carbine held
+at his head. When Phipson reached his friend he found him unconscious,
+and sadly the two boats rowed back to the village. As they approached
+Phipson saw by the still burning town the tall figure of Serferez Ali
+talking to Smalley, and close by the white fluttering of a woman's
+dress.
+
+"By God!" he groaned, "I don't think it was worth it, even for this.
+Jackson, old man, can't you speak?"
+
+But there was no answer, and almost at this moment they reached the
+landing place. A cheer went up from those on shore, and Smalley came
+forward with outstretched hand. "I can't thank you enough. Come, let
+my wife thank you, too. Where is Jackson?"
+
+Phipson shook hands with them both.
+
+"Where is Mr. Jackson?" asked Ruys.
+
+There was no help for it but to speak out at once before her. As the
+words left Phipson's lips Smalley was beside the boat, and they
+tenderly lifted out the wounded man and placed him on an improvised
+couch of greatcoats. They stood round him in a sad group while Smalley
+with gentle hands examined the wound, and the silence was only once
+broken when a great sob burst from honest Serferez Ali, and the old
+man turned away with his head hanging down. Ruys held a lantern for
+her husband, and Phipson noticed that there was not a quiver in her
+hand, although her lips were blue.
+
+After a time Smalley rose to his feet and shook his head. "He can not
+even be moved from here," he whispered, "and all my appliances are
+under that blazing roof. God works very hardly sometimes." The dying
+man moaned feebly, and Ruys was on her knees beside him.
+
+"What is it? Can't you speak? Oh, husband, can not you save him?"
+
+"God knows that I would!" said Habakkuk sadly, and then his wife bent
+low to hide the tears that fell fast down her cheeks.
+
+That strange power of hearing, that supreme strength which comes to
+persons at the last, came to Peregrine now.
+
+"Die!" he said; "who says I am going to die? I am young yet; my work
+is not done. Mother," he cried, "I am coming!"
+
+Ruys bent down and kissed the hot forehead softly. There was a
+shivering of the limbs, and the strong young spirit had passed.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XV.
+
+                       THE PASSING OF THE WOON.
+
+                   Pick up the threads, the web is spun;
+                   For weal or woe, the task is done.
+
+                                                      _Maraffa_.
+
+
+"Good-bye, Phipson. We can never forget what we owe you--you and the
+poor boy who lies there. Come to us when you can. We will give you a
+warm welcome. It's a big country, and there's room for a young man
+with hands and feet. Good-bye again!"
+
+Habakkuk shook hands cordially with Phipson, and passed up the gangway
+of the Woon to join his wife, who had already said farewell. The siren
+whistle screamed shrilly, and with much laughter and good-humoured
+hustling the crowd on board left the decks, the paddles drummed, and
+the Woon sidled back from the quay, and then, turning gracefully
+round, steamed down the river, followed by a multitude of boats whose
+gaily dressed occupants formed bright groups of gorgeous colour on the
+gleaming water. Phipson stood and watched, and answered the wave of
+the white handkerchief from the stern; stood and watched until the
+convoy of boats became but little black specks, and the Woon entered a
+curve of golden water that reflected back the glories of the sunset
+and was lost to view. In the fore part of the ship, beside his
+belongings, sat Serferez Ali, who had cut his name, and was going back
+to enjoy his well-earned pension in his home in the Salt Range of the
+Punjab. He was rich with this and the rewards he had gained, and if at
+times he had done things which our civilization does not approve of,
+that did not the less make him a gallant old specimen of his class.
+Occasionally he would rise, and, walking to the inclosed space
+reserved for horses, caress the soft muzzle of his roan, a round,
+black muzzle that thrust itself confidingly forward toward him.
+
+"We are going back, Motee, my heart--going back out of this accursed
+land of swamps. Didst thou think, thou of the Waziri, that I would
+leave thee to die here? Nay, nay! We are going back to the land
+where women bring forth men. But we saw the assassin hang before we
+went--hang-like the dog he was; and Bullen, son of Bishen, thy old
+comrade, brave, but a fool, is now inspector in _my_ place. But
+comfort thee, my pearl, we are going _home!_"
+
+The mare whinnied back to her master, and the old man sought his seat
+again, keeping one eye on a heavy brass-bound box and the other on his
+favourite.
+
+At intervals he watched the broad fan of the electric light throw its
+white radiance across the river, and murmured to himself as he inhaled
+the grateful fumes of the hubble-bubble:
+
+"Prophet of God! But these English are a wonderful race! Nevertheless,
+except for their cursed engines, the _khalsa_ would still have been.
+_Ahi!_ those were the battles of giants!"
+
+On the quarter deck Ruys, very pale and white, leaned back in a lounge
+chair, and Habakkuk stood beside her with a new light in his eyes.
+They watched the thin scimitar of the new moon gleam out of the sky,
+and the gray mists creep up the river and enfold the dim and now
+distant outlines of the forest. They were leaving the country, leaving
+the East for good. One felt that to other and stronger hands must be
+left the work so well begun by him; and as for the other, she had gone
+through the furnace and had come out pure gold. From his post by the
+man at the wheel Skipper Jack watched the pair. He was a man whom the
+ordinary cares of the world troubled not, but on the present occasion
+serious misfortune had assailed him, and he was out of temper. His
+tobacco had run out, and he had sunk to the degradation of filling his
+pipe with the half-burned stump of a cheroot. Skipper Jack stood,
+therefore, hard by the man at the wheel, and, while his keen eyes
+evermore watched the ship's course, his tongue murmured strange oaths
+under his beard. But what was that, seen through the gloom, that
+crinkled up the gnarled features of the skipper into a sour smile of
+amusement? He saw it again, and in his astonishment almost dropped his
+favourite clay.
+
+"Bust me foolish!" he muttered to himself. "Blowed if the parson ain't
+a-spooning the missis! Gr-r-r! the old pipe is out!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE WIDOW LAMPORT
+
+
+
+
+
+       But I laye a-wakynge, and loe! ye dawne was breakynge,
+       And rarelye pyped a larke for ye promyse of ye daye:
+                 "Uppe and sette yr lance in reste!
+                  Uppe and followe on ye queste!
+                  Leave ye issue to bee guessed
+                    At ye endynge of ye waye "--
+
+       As I laye a-wakynge, 'twas soe she seemed to say--
+         "Whatte and if it alle bee feynynge?
+          There be better thynges than gaynynge,
+          Better pryzes than attaynynge."
+          And 'twas truthe she seemed to saye.
+       Whyles the dawne was breakynge, I rode upon my waye.
+
+                                          Q. (_Oxford Magazine_.)
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE WIDOW LAMPORT.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                    AT THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE.
+
+
+When Mrs. Lamport, the pretty widow, was observed standing outside the
+door of the Methodist meeting-house in Rigaum one Sabbath morning
+after service, the congregation began to wonder and cast little
+inquiring looks at each other.
+
+They were serious folk, and it was clear to them that the proper
+course to pursue, after attending divine worship, was to make one's
+way soberly home, looking neither to the right nor to the left, lest
+the enemy of mankind should seize his opportunity to the ruin of a
+soul. Her presence excited curiosity the more as none of the
+worshippers had seen her in church that day. This absence disappointed
+the womankind, who were wont to take surreptitious notes of Halsa
+Lamport's dress, between their fingers, as they knelt apparently
+absorbed in prayer. Mrs. Lamport stood on the steps of the chapel
+entrance, leaning lightly on the end of her parasol, a neat figure
+dressed in white, with a coquettish knot of red ribbons in her high
+straw hat. The flash of these ribbons in the sunlight caught the eye
+of Elder Bullin as he stepped forth, smug and clean shaven, his two
+daughters following demurely in his footsteps. A scowl passed over the
+old man's features, and he muttered something under his breath about
+Rahab and the city wall. As the people filed out of church they stared
+at Mrs. Lamport. Most of the young men lifted their hats, but the
+greater portion of the women pursed up their lips and sniffed at the
+figure before them. There were two crimson spots on the widow's cheeks
+now; she had a temper, and it was evident that it was being put to
+trial. She rattled the plated end of her parasol on the stone steps,
+and made an impatient movement.
+
+Let it be at once understood that, as far as the good people of the
+Rigaum tabernacle knew, there was no record against Mrs. Lamport,
+except the fact that she was a pure European, and they, for the most
+part, were of mixed descent. She had come suddenly into their midst
+about a year ago, and all that they knew of her was that she boarded
+with the Bunnys, and was supposed to be a distant connection of
+theirs. Her living with the Bunnys ensured her toleration, for Mr.
+Bunny was the registrar of a government office, and not a man to be
+offended with impunity.
+
+Nevertheless the word was passed that friendly relations with the
+pretty widow were not to be cultivated. It was not to be denied that
+she was diligent in her attendance at chapel, that no word of hers had
+given offence--yet the women took alarm, the husbands yielded to their
+wives, and Mr. Bunny's influence alone preserved an armed neutrality.
+
+As Mr. Bunny and his wife came out of church they stopped and looked
+inquiringly at the widow, for she had pleaded a headache as an excuse
+for not attending service with them.
+
+"Come to meet us?" asked Mrs. Bunny with a smile.
+
+"No," was the reply; "I have come to meet Mr. Galbraith."
+
+Almost as the words were spoken the pastor appeared, and after a few
+moments' conversation he and Mrs. Lamport moved off slowly together,
+under the shadow of the palm trees, in the direction of Mr. Bunny's
+house. Mrs. Bunny discreetly induced her husband to take a longer
+road, and as for those of the congregation who overheard the words
+spoken, they remained almost struck dumb with astonishment. Mr.
+Sarkies, however, a semi-Armenian, and a member of the congregation,
+who was himself looked upon with suspicion as not having yet found
+Christ, made a little mistake at this moment.
+
+"Well, I'm damned!" said he to himself as he struck his gray
+pantaloons with a thin cane smartly and looked after the retreating
+pair. Sarkies prided himself somewhat on being a lady-killer, and it
+had been his intention, as soon as he had straightened his collar
+sufficiently, to give the widow the pleasure of his company home.
+
+It was unfortunate for him, however, that the bad word caught Elder
+Bullin's ear. The old man had stopped for a moment, much against his
+will, to reply to a remark made by a friend. He was about to rebuke
+the speaker for having his thoughts on earthly matters on the Lord's
+Day when the oath, softly spoken though it was, reached him. He turned
+sharply. "Young man," said he, "swear not at all. Behold!" he added,
+pointing with his stick at the shrinking figure before him, "here is
+one whose paths are in the Valley of Sin, and whose ways lead him to
+hell fire."
+
+"Oh, paw!" exclaimed his eldest daughter deprecatingly.
+
+"I--I beg pardon, Mr. Bullin," stammered Sarkies; "it slipped out."
+
+"Never you come to my house again," continued the elder. "I will bring
+your scandalous conduct before the next meeting."
+
+Sarkies tried vainly to smile and carry it off with a high hand, but
+the elder's words attracted a crowd, and their united attention was
+too much for him. He made an effort, however, to retreat with dignity.
+
+"I don't want--come to y'r'ouse," he said with a sickly smile as he
+pushed his hat slightly on one side of his head and moved off with an
+air of apparent unconcern.
+
+At this junction Miss Bullin burst into tears.
+
+"Shame! shame! Lizzie!" exclaimed her sister Laura; but Lizzie was not
+to be appeased. She wore her heart upon her sleeve, after the manner
+of some women.
+
+"Oh, my Jimmy!" she cried, and the elder was moved to uncontrollable
+wrath.
+
+"G'home at once," he shouted, "or I'll Jimmy you--Jimmy, indeed.
+G'home, you----"
+
+He checked himself, and followed his trembling daughters to his
+brownberry, for he was a "carriage man."
+
+This unexpected scene withdrew all attention from the widow and her
+companion, and when, the principal actors in it had gone, all thought
+of Halsa Lamport, for the present, vanished from the minds of the
+church-goers, whose ways home were full of prophecies on the
+consequences of Mr. Sarkies's folly.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+                            A CUP OF TEA.
+
+
+The Rigaum Methodist Tabernacle was in a suburb of Bombay called by
+that name. It was a small oblong building, washed a pale blue, and
+embedded in a nest of cocoa palms. To the right a Jain temple raised
+its gold-tipped cupola, and the chimes of the bell which called
+together the Christian worshippers of the chapel were often drowned in
+the discordant shriek of the conch horn, the shrill blast of trumpets,
+and the incessant beating of drums.
+
+This had resulted in a lawsuit, which ended in leaving the parties
+much as they were before, except that it was a virtual triumph for the
+heathen, and his uncanny rejoicings on the Sabbath became more
+intolerable than ever.
+
+So strong indeed was the feeling on the point that Elder Bullin
+concluded an extempore prayer one day with the words, "_And we pray
+Thee, O Merciful Father! to teach us to forgive our enemies; but to
+send down the lightning of thy wrath on the heathen, that they, the
+revilers and mockers of thy worship, may burn in torment without
+end--Amen_."
+
+With the exception of the pastor, John Galbraith, and Halsa Lamport,
+the congregation consisted of Anglo-Indians and Eurasians of the
+middle and lower classes, the hereditary office hands of the Indian
+government. The church and the congregation were the remains of a wave
+of religious enthusiasm that had passed over Bombay some years ago.
+This originated with an American evangelist, who sought the East to
+carry, as he said, "the glad tidings to the heathen white."
+
+The revivalist met for a time with a success beyond his hopes, and
+established at least a dozen churches which were filled with devout
+worshippers. When the "Bishop," as they loved to call him, left to
+return home, matters were apparently on a firm basis; but in a few
+years the zeal he inspired died away, and the light burned but in a
+few places, one of which was in the chapel at Rigaum. Here, at any
+rate, it seemed to burn almost as brightly as in the palmy days of the
+Bishop, and there was no doubt that this was due to the pastor.
+
+By no means a learned man, yet with a sympathetic manner and a fund of
+quiet humour that attracted all who came under its influence,
+Galbraith was enabled to hold his flock together when their naturally
+flighty nature and mutual jealousies would have driven them to
+dissolve with curses.
+
+The pastor lived in a small house adjoining the church, from which it
+was separated by a brick wall. A narrow gate allowed a passage from
+the chapel enclosure to the "Manse," as it was called. In the little
+plot of ground before the house Galbraith had tried to cultivate a
+garden, but his efforts were not particularly successful. Nothing
+would grow here except cocoa palms. There was an everlasting haze of
+soft dust in the air. The people were accustomed to it, but on a
+stranger the effect was suffocating. One felt choked in this spot
+where no pure air ever penetrated the wall of palms. It was never
+really cool, but a damp pall of dust hung over everything. On the
+morning we speak of Galbraith rose at an early hour, and, sitting in
+the small portico of his house, called for a cup of tea. After a
+little time his Goanese servant appeared, bearing a tray in his hands,
+on which was a tea-pot, a cup and saucer, with an electro-plated spoon
+lying beside it; there was a toast also, set in a drunken fashion in a
+rack.
+
+Manuel's appearance was not attractive, as he shuffled along with his
+burden, the ends of his toes stuck into a pair of slippers which
+clicked under his feet. He placed the tea things down on the small
+table beside Galbraith with a sulky slam that set the spoon twittering
+in the saucer, and said--
+
+"Master's tea ready."
+
+The pastor poured himself out a cup, and looked for the milk and
+sugar. There was none. "Boy," said he, "where is the milk and the
+sugar?"
+
+"Yessar," and Manuel disappeared into the house. "It's very odd,"
+mused Galbraith; "Manuel has been with me nearly two years now, and he
+persists in not bringing milk and sugar with my morning tea. I must
+really speak to him--perhaps it is a judgment on me for employing a
+follower of the Scarlet Woman." He stirred the tea he had poured out,
+and tasted it, but set it down with a wry face. "The old Adam is still
+strong within me," he said with a half-smile. "I can not bear tea
+alone."
+
+In the meantime Manuel reached the back of the house and looked round
+for the goat he had forgotten to milk. The goat was there, in the
+veranda, and at sight of him she fled toward the temple, the Goanese
+in hot pursuit.
+
+"Jesu Maria!" he exclaimed as he seized her at last. "But thou art
+accursed among beasts--stand still, pig, and be milked."
+
+He squeezed a certain amount of milk into a jug, and, giving the goat
+a parting kick, ran back into the house, the jug held at arm's-length
+in front of him.
+
+On a sideboard was a small glass bowl, in which there were a few lumps
+of sugar. Manuel transferred one to his mouth, and then taking up the
+basin in his disengaged hand hastened into the portico. He placed the
+milk and sugar on the table, and silently took up a position behind
+his master's back.
+
+"Manuel," began Galbraith.
+
+"Yessar."
+
+"Why is it that I have always to ask you about the milk and sugar.
+Negligent in these little matters, I fear that you neglect also your
+higher duties."
+
+Manuel ran his fingers uneasily through his oily locks, and burst out,
+"Nosar--confess, sar--reglar."
+
+"Confess!" exclaimed Galbraith, roused at having his servant's
+religious belief thrust before him; "confess to an idol."
+
+"Nosar--confess to Father St. Francis."
+
+"Pish!" and Galbraith helped himself to a fresh cup of tea, but said
+no more.
+
+When he had finished, the Goanese removed the tea things, and the
+pastor remained sitting in his easy-chair. He would have liked to
+smoke; in fact, an almost intolerable longing seized him, but he
+thrust it down.
+
+"I will not desecrate the Sabbath," he said. He would not even look at
+his flowers; but after staring for a few minutes at the cheerless
+walls of the meeting-house, rose and went in.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                            A BILLET-DOUX.
+
+
+As Galbraith went into the house he noticed the dreary aspect of the
+rooms. He laid his hand for a moment on a small side-table, and when
+he lifted his fingers off their impression was distinctly visible on
+the dusty surface. A picture on the wall before him had slipped from
+its moorings, and hung in a helpless sort of way from a brass-headed
+nail. The pastor mounted a chair, and set the picture straight, wiping
+the glass carefully with his pocket-handkerchief. As he stepped down
+he called to mind a remark made by good-natured Mrs. Bunny.
+
+"You want a wife," she said to him one day, when he complained of some
+domestic trouble, in which Manuel had played a principal part. Her
+eyes rested, as she said this, on Halsa Lamport, who was standing in
+the veranda attending to a canary. Galbraith followed the glance, and
+although he smiled a little, and parried the speech, Mrs. Bunny's
+words set him thinking seriously. And now the little episode of the
+milk and sugar and the untidy room brought Mrs. Bunny's words back
+again. It struck him that Mrs. Lamport was very kind and gracious to
+him. The recollection of their last meeting, and the slight yet warm
+pressure of her hand which had sent the blood dancing through his
+veins, came vividly before him.
+
+He reached his dressing-room, and looked at the glass. The few gray
+hairs were not unbecoming, and he was a well set up man--not bad
+looking too, he thought, and then--he blushed like a girl at his own
+folly, and proceeded to dress. Service was at eleven. It was now only
+eight, so that Galbraith had three hours at his disposal. There was,
+of course, a Sunday-school class, but this was under the special
+care of Elder Bullin. It was on such mornings that the elder was in
+his element. He insisted on a verbatim repetition by heart of a
+chapter of the Bible by every member of his small class, and in case
+of failure--three mistakes only were allowed--he painted in glowing
+colours the horrors of eternal torment that awaited the culprit, when
+his earthly life closed. He would go so far as to definitely state
+that the shadowy wings of Death were at that moment hovering over the
+class, and it often happened that a small member was so overcome with
+terror that he had to retire bellowing lustily. Fortnightly the elder
+gave the class an extempore lecture of vast length, and on the
+following day his two daughters were required to write this out from
+memory, a labour watered with their tears.
+
+Galbraith completed his toilet, and went into his study to touch up
+his sermon. The text he had chosen was, "And God hath both raised up
+the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power." They were
+strong, healthful words, but the pastor was not quite certain that he
+realized their meaning. He was of those who judge of great things by
+comparing them with little things. He had found that small vices were
+extremely hard, sometimes impossible, to get rid of, notwithstanding
+the most assiduous application to the Deity. He almost despaired at
+times of one of the primal doctrines of his sect--the direct
+intervention of Providence in the affairs of this world. He was by
+turns full of certainty and full of doubt. He was willing to concede
+that the all-seeing eye marked the sparrow falling, but for the life
+of him he could not help asking himself why the sparrow was allowed to
+come to disaster.
+
+His profession and education taught him that such a question was
+almost a deadly sin, and then would come a long fight between the
+man's religion and his reasoning powers.
+
+He ran his eyes over the text at the head of his sermon with a look of
+doubt in them, and while doing so his hand unconsciously stole to the
+corner of his table, where a brown cherry-wood pipe lay snugly on a
+fur tobacco-bag. The touch of his fingers against the satin surface of
+the wood aroused him in a moment to a sense of what he was about to
+do. He looked at his outstretched hand, the pipe held between his
+fingers, and then burst out laughing. A moment after his face became
+grave. "The sparrow was not allowed to fall this time, at any rate,"
+he said, as he put down the pipe and lifted up a small Bible. He
+turned to the chapter whence he had taken his text, and read it
+attentively to the end. He went on to the next chapter. It was that in
+which St. Paul lectures the Corinthians on their conjugal duties. John
+Galbraith read this slowly, his eyebrows now and then contracting into
+a slight frown. While he read the face of Halsa Lamport seemed to come
+between him and the pages, and unseen lips to murmur her name in his
+ears. There was no use in resisting any longer. In fact, he had never
+made any resistance, but from the time of Mrs. Bunny's speech mentally
+associated the widow in all his actions; perhaps, too, the defects in
+his domestic arrangements had their effect, although he may not have
+been conscious of the full extent of the power.
+
+"I'll risk it," he said, with sudden resolution, as he pulled a piece
+of writing paper toward himself and seized a pen. But it was easier
+said than done, and John ran through a good dozen sheets before he
+decided on what to say. What he did say was this. He wrote to Halsa
+Lamport asking for an interview that day as he had that to tell her
+which was of the greatest importance to himself. The note was very
+brief, and contained nothing more. He folded and addressed the letter
+as Manuel came in to announce breakfast. Manuel had smartened himself
+up. He had on a clean white linen jacket. His hair was more
+resplendent than ever.
+
+Galbraith felt that breakfast was out of the question. He was
+feverishly eager now for the time to come when he should see Halsa,
+and hear from her "ay" or "nay."
+
+"I don't think I'll have any breakfast to-day; and look here, Manuel,
+take this note to Mr. Bunny's house, and give it to Mrs. Lamport.
+Bring the answer back before I go to church."
+
+Now the Bunnys lived some little distance away from the Manse, and
+Manuel was not fond of walking. He tried to put off the evil hour by
+an affectation of concern. He took the note from Galbraith, and said--
+
+"Yessar--master not ill?"
+
+"No--no," replied Galbraith; "take the note at once, please."
+
+"Fry pomflit for breakfas, sar," said Manuel, "and prong curry--all
+spile."
+
+"Never mind, Manuel--we'll have some another day. Take that letter
+and--run."
+
+Manuel did as he was bidden, and Galbraith watched him shuffling along
+the road until he reached the corner where Pedro Pinto's liquor stall
+stood. Manuel hesitated a moment here. A glass of toddy, a liquor made
+out of the fermented sap of the palmyra, would be very grateful;
+but--he glanced round only to find the pastor standing at the gate and
+watching him. With a sigh the Goanese turned and went on; but, now
+that he had passed the curve of the street, slackened his pace to a
+leisurely walk. He remained away for more than an hour, during which
+time Galbraith paced the little veranda impatiently, wondering whether
+there would be any reply to his note. It was impossible to think of
+anything else, and each moment seemed to him an age. At intervals he
+walked to the gate, and looked down the road, but there was no sign of
+Manuel. At last he saw him turn the corner; whereupon, filled with a
+sudden terror, John hastily retreated into his study, and began to
+turn over the leaves of his sermon. He tried to persuade himself that
+he had retired because it was undignified to watch his servant in this
+manner, but the thick beating of his heart told him he lied to
+himself. At last there was a shuffle at the door, and Manuel, coming
+in, stood before his master silently.
+
+Galbraith looked at him. "Did you give the letter? Was there any
+answer?"
+
+"Yessar." Manuel produced a little gray square envelope from his
+breast pocket and handed it to Galbraith.
+
+"Very well," said the pastor as he stretched forth his hand to receive
+the letter, "you can go now."
+
+"Master have tiffin?" inquired Manuel, but Galbraith peremptorily
+ordered him out of the room. When he had gone John tore the note open.
+It was written on that abominable pattern of paper which folds like an
+envelope, and as a consequence, Galbraith in his excitement tore the
+whole letter in two. With hands that trembled with eagerness he placed
+the pieces together, and resting them on the table, read the reply--
+
+"_I will meet you after church, and we can walk home together_."
+
+There was no signature, but Galbraith knew the handwriting. He looked
+furtively around, and then kissing the precious scraps of paper,
+locked them carefully away.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+                                 YES.
+
+
+On leaving the church, Galbraith and his companion walked slowly down
+the road. The street was hedged in between two low walls, gray with
+age, and partly coated with a short, thick moss, whose original colour
+was hidden by the dust lying heavy upon it. The tops of the walls were
+covered with bits of broken glass, fragments of bottles stuck upright
+into the masonry as a defence against trespassers.
+
+Behind these barriers, on either side, the date and cocoa palms grew
+in thick profusion, hiding from view the dwelling-houses which lay
+among them. At short intervals a disreputable-looking gate was passed,
+the paint peeling off in patches from the wood-work. With the
+exception of the one or two couples returning from service, and a few
+native Christians at Pinto's liquor stall, lounging with the flies
+among the long-necked glass bottles, there were no people in the
+street. The middle of the road was six inches deep in fine dust, but
+on the side where the pavement should have been, was a small pathway,
+beaten hard, with just sufficient room for two, provided they walked
+somewhat closely to each other. John went in the dust, leaving his
+companion the whole of the sidewalk. His boots were covered with the
+clinging gray powder, and a portion of it had sprinkled itself on his
+clothes.
+
+"It's very dusty there, Mr. Galbraith; don't you think you had better
+come on to the sidewalk?"
+
+"Thank you," said John humbly, as he joined the widow. As he came up,
+the folds of her dress brushed against him, and her shoulder grazed
+his. The touch sent a thrill through Galbraith's veins.
+
+"I--I beg pardon," said he nervously, "I am very awkward."
+
+The widow smiled slightly, and shot a glance at him from under her
+dark eye-lashes. "I don't see that you have anything to beg pardon
+for."
+
+Galbraith was about to say that all life should be one appeal for
+pardon, but he checked himself, and, glancing at the walls on either
+side of them, remarked--
+
+"I wonder how many thousands of bottles were used to make that defence
+work on the walls here!"
+
+"I really couldn't tell, Mr. Galbraith," replied the widow a little
+sharply.
+
+John remained silent and abashed for a few moments, and at last she
+spoke.
+
+"I got your letter, of course, this morning. What was it you were
+going to tell me? Not about the glass bottles, I hope?" and she showed
+an even row of pearly teeth between her red lips.
+
+A cold sweat burst out on Galbraith's forehead, and his tongue seemed
+paralysed. "I--I," he stammered, and then he clutched at a straw. "But
+what a number of people are on the road to-day."
+
+"There is the short cut, and I think we had better take that." The
+widow lifted her skirts slightly, and daintily tripped across. John
+caught a glimpse of an exquisite foot and ankle as he followed.
+
+"Lord," he cried in his heart, "deliver me from temptation!"
+
+Arrived at the opposite side of the road, Halsa turned to her
+companion, and putting out her foot, looked ruefully at it.
+
+"I have made my boots so dusty--what a horrid road this is!"
+
+John glanced round him nervously, then he pulled out his handkerchief.
+
+"May I?" he asked in a hesitating manner as he waved the folds in the
+air.
+
+"If you would be so kind;" and John, stooping down, brushed away the
+dust from one dainty foot, and then the other. He could not help
+lingering over the task.
+
+The widow, looking down on him, smiled to herself. "He's getting on,"
+she murmured, and then--
+
+"I think that will do--thank you so much. I'm afraid you have ruined
+that handkerchief--I'm so sorry."
+
+John gave a last brush at the boot before him and rose. He was a
+little red in the face, but--he was getting on.
+
+"I shall always keep this handkerchief sacredly, Mrs. Lamport," said
+he, putting it into his pocket carefully.
+
+"How ridiculous!" And the widow gave a little toss to her head, her
+colour rising slightly.
+
+They walked down the lane until they reached a small gateway. "This,"
+said Halsa as she passed through it, "takes us into the custard apple
+garden, immediately behind the palm tree, and my favourite seat is
+there--near the well."
+
+Galbraith followed her under the shade of the palms to the orchard.
+Their feet crackled over the dry leaves. A rough wooden seat was
+placed near a banyan tree which spread its shade over the well. Behind
+the seat was a thick lentena hedge in full bloom, and the butterflies
+were playing in a small cloud over the blossoms. Close to them a few
+mynas squabbled over some fallen fruit, and a gray squirrel scuttled
+past their feet up the trunk of the banyan, and chattered shrilly at
+them from its branches.
+
+The widow sank into the seat with a comfortable purr, and began
+tracing imaginary diagrams with the end of her parasol among the
+fallen leaves at her feet. Galbraith remained standing. "Won't you sit
+down, Mr. Galbraith?" and Halsa pointed to the vacant space at her
+side. "There's room for two."
+
+"It is not very warm to-day," he said, as he accepted the invitation.
+
+"No; I think it is quite cool. Look at the clouds. I shouldn't be
+surprised if there was rain;" and the widow looked up at the fleecy
+masses which had floated between the sunlight and the earth, hiding
+the glare and cooling the day.
+
+"Yes, I think we want some rain. This is about the time it usually
+comes."
+
+"Does it?" Halsa turned her eyes straight upon Galbraith as she said
+this and looked at him. They were very pretty eyes, very honest and
+true.
+
+Galbraith had thought over what he meant to say, but could remember
+nothing. All at once a desperate courage seemed to possess him.
+"Halsa," he said--his voice was very low and tender--"will you give me
+this?" He took her hand as he spoke. It lay in his unresistingly. It
+seemed to return his warm pressure.
+
+The widow's eyes were lowered now, and her cheeks like flame. "My
+dear," he said, and Halsa, lifting up her face, answered, "I will."
+
+Galbraith could hardly believe himself. He could almost hear the
+beating of his own heart as he sat with Halsa Lamport's hand in his.
+
+After a while she drew her hand gently away. "Was it this that you
+meant to tell me?" she asked, and John smiled back "Yes."
+
+There was another silence of a few minutes. Galbraith breathed a
+silent prayer for the blessing which he believed had been vouchsafed
+to him. "Lord," he murmured to himself, "I see thy work in this."
+
+"It's getting late," said Halsa suddenly. "They must be back from
+church now, and will miss us." She rose and stood near Galbraith, her
+dress touching him. John stood up meekly, and as he stood the widow
+started back with a little cry, "Don't!"
+
+"Don't--what?"
+
+"I--I thought----" She did not finish her sentence, for the next
+moment Galbraith's arm was round her waist, and he drew her toward
+him. Except his mother, he had never touched lip of woman. He kissed
+her gently with the tenderest possible pressure, and then he kissed
+her again and again, until at last Halsa drew herself from his arm.
+
+"There," she said, "I think that's enough for you to-day."
+
+John wondered to himself if he could ever have enough of the nectar he
+had tasted.
+
+"We must really go in now," said Halsa decisively.
+
+"One kiss more," he pleaded. His arm was round her waist; her lips
+were once more raised to his, when there was a crash in the lentena
+hedge, a rush of scampering feet, and a shrill voice called out:
+
+"Oh my! how nice! I'm going to tell mummy."
+
+The lovers shot back from each other, and the widow bit her lips with
+anger.
+
+"It's that horrid little Eddy Bunny. He must have been watching us the
+whole time. I should like to shake him," and she stamped her foot.
+
+John recovered himself. "Never mind, darling," he said. "Eddy will
+only break the news for us."
+
+It was wonderful how easy it all seemed now.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+                          MRS. BUNNY DOUBTS.
+
+
+On Sundays the carved blackwood furniture in the Bunny's drawing-room
+emerged from its weekly suit of holland and shone resplendent in red
+satin upholstery. Mr. Bunny had exchanged his boots for a pair of list
+slippers, and was seated in a straight-backed chair, his spectacles
+pushed on to his forehead. He was a little ill-tempered at having had
+to take that long road home, and regretted that he had not taken out
+his brownberry. It was just this point, however, that he was unwilling
+to concede to Elder Bullin. In a recent argument Bunny maintained that
+it was flying in the face of divine law to work a horse on a Sunday.
+The elder held more practical opinions on the subject, and there had
+almost been an open rupture. Since that time, however, Bunny walked to
+church on the Sabbath, but was beginning to regret his line of action.
+He was not a young man, and adipose tissue had increased with his
+years. It irritated him to see the elder pass him with his pair of
+katty-war horses. Bunny had only one. The irritation he felt, however,
+was equalled by the sense of satisfaction that stole over the elder as
+he passed his opponent engaged in carrying out his convictions. There
+was a rustle, and Mrs. Bunny came into the room in her black silk
+dress. She was nearly fifteen years younger than her husband, a
+somewhat uncommon thing in the class of life to which they belonged,
+where husband and wife are mostly of the same age, or very near it.
+Her active habits had, moreover, prevented her from running into flesh
+as most Eurasian women do. She came into the room briskly, stopped,
+set some grass in a vase straight, and picking up The Evangelical
+Record, the organ of the Methodist community, settled herself in a
+chair opposite Bunny, after giving a satisfied glance round the room.
+
+"Halsa and Mr. Galbraith haven't come in yet?" said Bunny, a tone of
+inquiry in his voice.
+
+"They'll be in just now," replied his wife, unfolding the sheets of
+the paper and smiling to herself. She was a cunning little woman, and
+had long read Galbraith's feelings in his eyes.
+
+"Where's Eddy?" asked the father. Eddy was their only child, a boy
+about twelve years of age. "I think I'll hear him his chapter," he
+added.
+
+"Yes--where's the boy? Ed-dee!--Ed-dee!" and Mrs. Bunny cried aloud
+for her offspring.
+
+There was a patter of footsteps in the hall, a rush up the passage,
+and Eddy burst into the room.
+
+"Oh, maw!" he exclaimed, "Mr. Galbraith is kissing Aunty Halsa in the
+garden!"
+
+"What!" shouted Bunny, fairly jumping to his feet.
+
+Mrs. Bunny burst out laughing. "You old goose, wait till they come in,
+and you'll hear more."
+
+"On the Lord's day, too!" said Bunny, holding up his hands. "And what
+were you doing in the garden? Have you learned your chapter?"
+
+Eddy shuffled from one leg to the other. "It was very long," he
+protested with a whimper.
+
+"I'll long you--come with me," and Bunny took Eddy's right ear between
+the thumb and forefinger of his left hand.
+
+Eddy set up a dolorous howling, and Mrs. Bunny interposed. "Remember
+it's Sunday, Tom," she said.
+
+"Oh--here you are," she added, as Galbraith and Halsa came into the
+room. Eddy seized his opportunity, and made a run for it.
+
+Galbraith came forward at once, leading Halsa by the hand.
+
+"Mr. Bunny," he said, "I have asked Halsa to be my wife, and she has
+said----"
+
+"Yes--I knew she would," and Mrs. Bunny kissed Halsa, who blushed and
+trembled very much.
+
+Mr. Bunny shook hands alternately with Halsa and Galbraith.
+
+"I am very glad," he said. "I didn't think of this; but I am very
+glad."
+
+After a while Galbraith left. It was agreed that the engagement should
+be given out at the next meeting of the Council of the Tabernacle,
+which was to be held in a few days.
+
+"But Eddy knows all about it," said Mrs. Bunny, and Halsa blushed
+furiously, while Galbraith looked helplessly around.
+
+"I don't think Eddy will say much after I have spoken to him," said
+Bunny; "and, Galbraith, don't forget that you dine here to-night."
+
+They all walked home after the evening service, and dined quietly and
+happily together. When the time came for Galbraith to go, Halsa walked
+with him to the gate. They lingered for a moment there together.
+
+"Good-night, John." She raised her face to his, and he kissed her
+softly.
+
+"You do not regret?" asked Galbraith, and for answer Halsa kissed him
+of her own accord. He turned at last, and vanished into the gloom.
+
+That night when they retired to rest, and Bunny and his wife had read
+a chapter of the big leather-covered Bible, which lay on a small table
+in their bedroom, Mrs. Bunny turned to her husband.
+
+"Tom," she said, "what if all this should end badly? I am frightened
+now."
+
+"Why should it end badly?" and Bunny wiped his spectacles carefully
+and folded them into their case.
+
+"I am afraid now--I don't know why. Why don't you tell me all about
+Halsa? You never have."
+
+"There's not much to tell. You knew Stephen Lamport, my cousin, when
+he married Halsa six years ago, and we went on board the Petrel and
+met them. You know what a scoundrel Stephen was. He led her an awful
+life for six years, and then deserted her before that last voyage of
+his to the Mauritius, when the Mahi went down with all on board.
+Lamport was a big blackguard, but he is dead now."
+
+"What if Stephen is not dead?"
+
+"Not dead--that's nonsense. But it's half-past ten, and I'm going to
+bed."
+
+Nevertheless Maggie Bunny lay awake late that night. What if Stephen
+Lamport should not be dead? she kept ever thinking to herself.
+
+At last she stole out of bed and prayed in the dim light for Halsa and
+Galbraith. When she rose she felt comforted and refreshed. She stole
+back slowly; Bunny was asleep, and she looked at his face.
+
+"He is a good man," she murmured; "but----"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+                         MASTER EDWARD BUNNY.
+
+
+Mr. Sarkies lived with his widowed mother and an unmarried aunt, an
+elderly spinster, in a small house behind that occupied by the Bunnys.
+The family were of Armenian descent, although they were unwilling to
+own the fact. Wherever they went, however, they bore the cachet of
+their origin with them in their noses, the insignia of race bestowed
+upon them by Providence. When the wave of religious enthusiasm swept
+over Bombay it caught up among other flotsam the Sarkies family. The
+head of the house died shortly after this event, making a most
+edifying end. He left a little money, and his son was educated as well
+as it was possible for a man of his class, and was now an assistant
+accountant in the great firm of Apcoon Brothers, and in receipt of a
+salary of about two hundred pounds a year. Of a light, volatile
+character by nature, the strain of having to live under the restraints
+of the sect to which he belonged was sometimes too much for Sarkies,
+and he often broke out occasionally, as on the memorable Sunday when
+the elder fell foul of him, with disastrous results to himself. He was
+idolized by his mother and his aunt, and was a contributor to the
+Poet's Corner of the Bombay Bouncer. He had been much touched by the
+emotion displayed by Lizzie Bullin when the elder attacked him. He sat
+up half the night pouring his feelings into verse. He rose early, and
+copied the verses out neatly on a piece of bright pink Baskeville
+paper, with a blue J. S. in rustic letters on the top. This he folded
+carefully in an envelope, but did not address it. "Don't want rows,"
+he said emphatically to himself. His excitement was so great that he
+contented himself with about one-third of his usual quantity of curry
+for breakfast, and, entering his buggy, a legacy from his father, in
+which an old flea-bitten Arab worked loyally, he drove toward his
+place of business.
+
+"Mind and come back earlee, Jimmee!" screamed his aunt after him.
+
+"Yes, auntee," and the buggy rattled out of the gate on to the road, a
+cloud of dust rising behind it.
+
+He had not gone far when he saw Eddy Bunny before him, walking to
+school, a satchel full of books swinging in his hand. A happy thought
+struck Sarkies; Eddy Bunny attended the High School, where both boys
+and girls were taught, in different classes, however. Now Sarkies knew
+that a small sister of Lizzie's was also a pupil at the school. If he
+could only induce Eddy to give the verses to Florry they would be sure
+to reach safely. He pulled up, therefore.
+
+"Hallo, Eddy!"
+
+"Hallo!" shouted back the boy, making a shambling sort of salute.
+
+"Want a lift?--drive you to school."
+
+"Orright," and Eddy climbed in.
+
+"When I grow up I'm going to get a buggy better than this."
+
+Sarkies felt a little nettled, but made no reply. He hit the horse
+smartly, and the beast kicked up its heels, and then went on.
+
+"I say, give me the whip."
+
+"Here you are; and look here, Eddy, I want you to do something for
+me."
+
+"Aw!"
+
+"Do you know Florry Bullin?"
+
+"She's my sweetheart," replied Eddy; "I'm going to marry her when I
+grow up."
+
+Better and better, thought Sarkies. "Well, look here, Eddy: Lizzie is
+_my_ sweetheart, and I want to marry her."
+
+"Then you are not going to marry Aunty Halsa? But she wouldn't marry
+you; she is going to marry Mr. Galbraith."
+
+"What!" Sarkies pulled the reins in and stopped the horse.
+
+"Yes. What'er you stopping for?"--chick, slish--and Eddy used the
+whip with all his little might.
+
+"Are you sure of this?" asked Sarkies, as they moved on.
+
+"Yes; paw said he'd lick me if I spoke about it."
+
+"Well, look here, Eddy; I want you to give a letter I have to Lizzie;
+give it to Florry, and tell her to give it. I will give you a ru--no,
+eight annas, if you do this, and mind and keep quiet about it, or I'll
+tell that you spoke about Aunty Halsa."
+
+"Give me the eight annas," said Eddy, stretching out his disengaged
+hand.
+
+They had reached the school gate by this time.
+
+"All right; get down first."
+
+Eddy descended, and held out a small paw, into which Sarkies dropped
+the coin.
+
+"Quick!" said Eddy, "the bell is ringing. Give me the letter."
+
+Sarkies handed him the note. "Be careful," he said, and Eddy, nodding,
+turned back in the direction of the school. He had not gone ten yards,
+however, when he stopped suddenly.
+
+"Mr. Sarkies!" he shouted.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Oh! I heard paw tell maw that you are to be turned out of church--wot
+fun!" He turned again and ran down the road toward the school.
+
+Sarkies was taken aback. He had no idea that the elder meant to carry
+his threat out.
+
+"Damfool!" he burst out savagely and loudly, for there was no danger
+of being overheard. Having relieved his feelings in this manner, he
+urged the old Arab forward, and the buggy once more joggled down the
+road.
+
+It was not until the half-hour's recess that Eddy obtained an
+opportunity to deliver the note. He pulled out of his satchel, which
+hung on a peg in the veranda of the school, a brown paper parcel
+containing his lunch--egg sandwiches. Clutching this in one hand, he
+made his way to the back garden of the school, and found Flora Bullin
+there. It was their trysting place.
+
+"Have a sweet?" she asked, handing him a lozenge which had become
+rather damp and limp in her hand.
+
+"Lozengers--eh!" said Eddy, and transferred the delicate morsel to his
+mouth.
+
+"I say," he said, "that's nice." He took a huge bite out of one of his
+egg sandwiches and began to speak again, with his mouth full.
+
+"I say, Florry, Jim Sarkies is sweet on Lizzie."
+
+"Lizzie is a horrid cat," replied Florry, as she soberly chose a sweet
+for herself out of a glass bottle. "She pinched me--awfool, last
+night, as I lay awake and listened. See there," and Florry bared a
+small arm showing the blue marks of a finger and thumb.
+
+Eddy examined it gravely. "How did you get caught?" he
+inquired--"laff?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, you are a muff. I never get caught that way."
+
+"Oh, but you're a boy!"
+
+"Yes; when I'm a man I'm going to marry you--do you hear that?"
+
+Florry nodded. "All right," she said. "What did Jimmee say about
+Lizzie?"
+
+"Oh! he gave me--a--hm--no--he gave me a letter for Lizzie, and I
+promised to give it to you to give to her, y'know."
+
+"Where's the letter?--give it to me."
+
+Eddy pulled out of his pocket the envelope, now soiled and grimy from
+contact with a peg-top, a bit of native sweetmeat, and the leather
+pouch of his catapult.
+
+"Here 'tis," he said; "you'll give it to Lizzie?"
+
+Florry took the letter carefully. "It's very dirty," she said, as she
+slipped it into her pocket. There was a silence of about a minute,
+during which time Eddy finished the remainder of his sandwiches.
+
+"Well," he said, "I'm off to bowl a little; you girls are no
+use--can't do anything."
+
+"Stop a minute, Eddy. Lizzie _is_ a cat. She don't like you neither.
+Wouldn't it be fun to give this letter to paw?"
+
+"Urn," reflected Eddy, "Lizzie pinched you. I won't have anybody
+pinching you, y'know. I'm going to marry you when I grow up. Serve
+Jimmy Sarkies right, too," he added, suddenly brightening up--"awful
+sneak. Yes, leave it on your paw's table, and say nothing. I'm off
+now, only ten minutes left."
+
+"Look here, Eddy."
+
+"Oh, bother! what's it now?"
+
+"Only this. I might like to marry some one else, you know, when I grow
+up. Ta--ta." She blew a kiss at him, and was gone.
+
+Eddy thrust his hands into his pockets and looked moodily after her.
+Suddenly an idea seemed to strike him. "It's Billy Bunder," he said,
+striking his clenched fist into his open palm--"only wait till I catch
+him----"
+
+Clang, clang, went the school bell. The recess was over.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                           DUNGAREE'S BELT.
+
+
+Digby Street, so named after a former governor of the presidency, is
+not more than three miles from the tabernacle. Probably in no part of
+the world does vice cover itself with so hideous a garb as here. An
+atmosphere of evil hangs over the dingy houses, packed closely to each
+other, whose inhabitants follow nameless occupations. When the night
+comes the street lamps shine on strange scenes. In the day all is
+silent as the grave. At the corner of the street is a small house. A
+faded sign-board, with the words "Hotel Metropole" in yellow letters
+on a blue field, explains its character. The landlord is a Parsee,
+or fire-worshipper, who has added an English word to his Eastern
+name, and is known to his customers, and to the police, as Kavasji
+Pain-killer. Mine host stands at the open entrance to his house. A
+misshapen figure, with dull eyes and bloated features, he reminds one
+of the strange bird-eating spiders of the forests of the East and West
+Indies.
+
+As this man gazes aimlessly down the road, he sees a few dim figures
+flitting in front of him. They move on rapidly for a few yards and
+stop. Suddenly there is a flash of light above them, and as each
+street lamp is lit, a small halo is formed in the evil night haze now
+beginning to envelop the street. It is not yet time, however, for the
+inhabitants to awaken from their drunken slumbers. It is later on that
+the lost legion rises.
+
+As the figures disappeared from view the landlord turned slowly and
+moved into the bar-room, where there was a thick odour of stale liquor
+and staler tobacco. The room was empty, save for the figure of a man
+lying asleep at a small marble-topped table, his head resting on his
+arms. From a smaller room beyond, the door of which was closed, came
+the sound of voices, and now and then an oath, or a hoarse laugh.
+Kavasji made a movement as if to approach the door, but changing his
+mind passed behind the bar, and settling himself into a cane chair,
+dozed off comfortably.
+
+In the meantime the conversation in the next room grew louder, and
+apparently more mirthful. There were two men there, sitting at a
+table, over which a well-thumbed pack of cards was scattered in some
+confusion. The room was littered with the _débris_ from empty pipes
+and the remains of half-burnt matches. A reflecting lamp, glaring from
+the wall, exactly opposite the door, threw out the figures in strong
+relief.
+
+"And so, messmate, I scooped in the dust--every dollar of it."
+
+And the speaker, a tall, powerful man, whose shirt-sleeves, pulled up
+to the elbow, showed the tattoo marks on his arms, brought his fists
+on the table with a crash that made the glasses clink.
+
+"It was hellish cute," said his companion, as he leaned back and
+laughed heartily, showing an even row of strong white teeth through
+the masses of red hair with which the lower portion of his face was
+covered. "I don't know a man, Dungaree," he added, "who could have
+done it save yourself."
+
+The giant grinned in response to the compliment, and, pulling out a
+jack-knife, began to pare some tobacco from a twist lying on the table
+beside him.
+
+"That," said he, nodding his head at the knife as he finished the
+operation, "was the tickler."
+
+"Rayther light for the work," said the red-haired man, as he picked
+the knife up and poised it in his hand.
+
+"There's the weight behind it," answered Dungaree Bill, puffing away
+at his short pipe.
+
+"True, but I prefer a brace and bit. I did something like that myself,
+'bout--let me see--six years ago, I think; but it don't matter. Whole
+shipload went down. No time to lower boats, except captain's gig.
+Lord, how I did laugh! You know the old trick--_sabe?_"
+
+"And blowed the oof after," laughed his companion.
+
+"Not much," was the reply. "Some shad-belly of a lawyer began to ask
+questions--curse him!--and the work--well done, too--went for
+nothing."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Went under."
+
+"And serve you right for a chowder-headed clam. I was wise enough to
+take my share in advance--and stick to it, too." The giant tapped his
+hand over his waist as he spoke, and reaching for the bottle began to
+pour out another drink for himself.
+
+"God's curse," said he, "there's nothing in here."
+
+The red-haired man's small eyes were twinkling under the skull-cap
+pulled well over his brows.
+
+"I'll play you for another," he said.
+
+"Done with you; but let us have the drink first."
+
+"All right; what shall it be?"
+
+"Monkeys," replied Dungaree, "and let their tails be curled. After
+this I'm off--we sail with the tide."
+
+The red-haired man rose from his chair, and, opening the door, passed
+into the bar-room. A hanging lamp was burning in the centre, and
+Kavasji slept peacefully. Walking with a slightly unsteady gait he
+reached the bar, and, leaning with both hands on it, shouted out:
+
+"Two monkeys; and mind you, Kavasji, lift up your elbow."
+
+Kavasji scrambled from his chair, and, placing two tumblers on the
+table, half filled them with rum. He then turned to a rack where there
+were a number of bottles of aerated water. As his back was turned the
+man at the bar pulled out a small phial containing a colourless
+liquid, and emptied it into one of the tumblers. He had just time to
+replace the phial in his pocket when Kavasji turned and filled the
+glasses with what he called tonic water.
+
+"That'll do, sonny," said the red-haired man, placing some silver
+coins with a smart click on the bar. "This settles the shot," and
+seizing a glass in each hand he lurched forward to rejoin his friend.
+Kavasji tested the coins carefully with his teeth and rang them on a
+table. Then opening a drawer, he shut them up with sundry companions.
+
+The man sleeping at the table rose, and, after staring vacantly about
+him for a moment, walked out slowly into the street. As his friend
+entered the room Dungaree Bill took one of the "monkeys" from his
+outstretched hand. They, clinked the glasses together above and below.
+
+"Here's luck," said Bill. The other nodded, and they drained the
+glasses.
+
+"Tails curly enough?" asked the red-haired man.
+
+"I guess so," said Dungaree, wiping his mouth with the back of his
+hairy hand.
+
+"And now," said he, "for the game."
+
+They arranged the cards; Dungaree cut, and the red-haired man dealt.
+
+After a few rounds the effect of the drug began to tell. The giant's
+head sank upon his breast, and the little man's eyes twinkled with a
+vicious glee.
+
+"Wake up, Dungaree," he said; "you're asleep, man."
+
+"By God," said the other, "you've----"
+
+His head dropped once more, and the long, powerful arms hung
+listlessly by his side.
+
+The red-haired man had started from his seat at Dungaree's words, and
+in his hand held an open knife, which he had drawn like lightning.
+
+He heaved a sigh of relief as he saw Dungaree's head sink back.
+
+Then rapidly approaching him, he rifled him with a practised hand. He
+undid the canvas belt from his waist, and felt it heavy as he raised
+it and transferred it to his own person.
+
+He then moved toward the door, but a sudden thought struck him, and he
+returned. He took up Dungaree's knife from the table.
+
+"Might as well ease him of this," he said; "he will do somebody a hurt
+when he awakens."
+
+Opening the door, he stepped into the barroom, and, reeling up to a
+table near the door, called for another drink. Kavasji once more
+turned his back, and with the noiseless rapidity of a cat the robber
+vanished into the street, which was already beginning to awaken.
+
+He dashed down a small alley, and only stopped after he had run for
+about half an hour. "I guess," said he, "Steve Lamport, you are born
+again." Then turning down a broad street, he walked slowly forward in
+the direction of the nearest railway station.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                       CAST OUT FROM THE FOLD.
+
+
+A council, of which Galbraith was _ex-officio_ president, controlled
+the affairs of the tabernacle, and adjudicated on all offences
+committed by members of the congregation against the rules of the
+body.
+
+As far as he was able the pastor tempered the decrees of the council
+with mercy, and there was yet another thing which made this body weak
+in comparison with similar institutions in the West. This was the
+natural shallowness of the East Indian, and his inability to feel or
+think deeply. In this manner the gloomy tenets of a religious sect,
+which called themselves the elect of heaven, and condemned all others
+to eternal torment, were softened.
+
+The instances were rare in which those terrible mental struggles so
+often described in the annals of Methodism took place. At the same
+time the belief in the direct interposition of the Creator in the
+smallest matters was intensified almost beyond imagination, and
+meanings were often assigned to the most ordinary actions of everyday
+life which, if they were not sad, would be laughable to contemplate.
+
+Galbraith was an unconscious doubter, and he was perhaps the only man
+there whose faith, unknown to himself, was tottering on its
+foundations. In a dim sort of way he was conscious that there was
+something wrong with himself, and the impulse to throw off the chains
+of the cheerless belief to which he was bound was at times almost
+greater than he could endure. It was his hourly duty to exhort his
+flock to find Christ. Many of them asserted that they had made the
+discovery, and looked with complacent satisfaction on the certainty of
+future salvation.
+
+But while John Galbraith was raising his voice and preaching to his
+people, there was that within him that told him that he himself was
+unable to find the haven of rest, and a longing for a warmer belief,
+one full of love and charity, would come upon him.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+Elder Bullin, arrayed in a solemn suit of black, stood, hat in hand,
+at his doorstep. His brownberry was ready, the lamps flashing brightly
+in the darkness of the evening.
+
+It was the date of the monthly meeting of the tabernacle, and the
+elder was determined to put Mr. Sarkies out of the fold, that "tainted
+wether," whose further touch was contamination. His daughters stood
+beside him to see him off, and the elder, rapping his stick on the
+fibre matting, impressed upon the girls the necessity for holding
+godly communion among themselves during his absence.
+
+His speech was interrupted by the fact that in slipping his hand into
+his waistcoat pocket, he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten his
+spectacles.
+
+Hastily stopping his discourse, he walked back to his room, and
+found the brown leather case lying on a square envelope on his
+writing-table. He picked up the case, and, pulling out the glasses,
+fixed them carefully over his eyes. He then picked up the envelope. It
+was not addressed, but carefully sealed. He rubbed it between his
+finger and thumb. There was evidently something inside it. The bright
+pink colour aroused his suspicions.
+
+"The livery of the scarlet woman," he said, as he tore it open. As he
+read, the expression of his countenance changed from profound
+astonishment to anger, and then to utter contempt.
+
+"Verses--poetry--Satan hath lain in wait for this unhappy young man,
+and his portion shall be of the wrath to come--verses--and to
+me--pah!"
+
+He recognised the writing and the monogram, and was self-complacent
+enough to imagine that the verses were addressed to him.
+
+When he returned to the hall his daughters were still dutifully
+waiting there. He said no word to them, however, but, entering his
+carriage, closed the door after him with a bang, and was rapidly
+driven off. The meeting was to be held in the church, and all the
+members of the council were already expecting the elder. On his
+arrival there was a solemn scene of handshaking all round, and then
+the pastor opened the meeting with a short but fervent prayer. At the
+conclusion of this, a decorous time was allowed for the members to
+recover a sitting posture, and Mr. Bunny, rising, begged permission to
+address the assembly. In a few words he explained that it was above
+all things desirable that their pastor should be a married man, and
+went on to say that the Lord had worked this out in his own manner, so
+that the spirit had moved Galbraith to seek the hand of their beloved
+sister, Halsa Lamport, in marriage, and that it was proposed to
+celebrate the ceremony with all the speed consistent with good taste.
+Mr. Bunny trusted that the assemblage would rejoice with their beloved
+guide in his choice.
+
+It was scarcely possible to do otherwise than congratulate Galbraith,
+and the council did so, but in a half-hearted fashion that showed they
+doubted his wisdom. Elder Bullin alone raised his voice in protest.
+"She walks forth decked in gay colours that are not of the Lord's," he
+said, "and has not found the perfect peace. Far be it for me to
+interfere in this matter, but my conscience"--here he smote his breast
+with his hand--"tells me that it would have been wiser----" Mr. Bunny
+started up, but Galbraith laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Gently, brother," he said; "let the elder say his say."
+
+But the murmur of discontent that arose told the elder he had gone far
+enough. "I will say no more on this point," he said; "but as I am now
+addressing the meeting, desire to bring to its notice the scandalous
+conduct of our brother, James Sarkies, who, on the Sabbath before
+last, profaned the Lord's day by cursing within the precincts of the
+temple. Of what avail is it that such should be of our fold--better is
+it that we cast out the offending member. Does not the Scripture say,
+'If thine eye offend thee, cast it out'?"
+
+"The Scripture also says, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged,'" replied
+Galbraith. Elder Bullin lifted his eyes in smug satisfaction to the
+ceiling.
+
+"I," he said, somewhat irrelevantly, "am sure of my salvation; are you
+of yours? Do you know where your footsteps lead you? Mine lead me to
+the golden gates."
+
+At that moment the desire to say that he was walking blindly, and
+needed light more than any there, swept over Galbraith. He controlled
+himself with an effort, however, and sat still, leaning lightly on the
+table with his elbow.
+
+"And furthermore," went on the elder, "the misguided youth has so far
+lost his respect for age that he has addressed me for forgiveness in
+poetry, and mocked me before my face." He laid the offending verses on
+the table as he spoke. "This is his writing," he said; "those who wish
+may read it."
+
+Mr. Bunny stretched forth his hand and handed the paper to the pastor.
+Galbraith read it with an amusement he could not conceal.
+
+"I think, elder," he said, "this was not meant for you."
+
+Bullin fairly gurgled with rage. "I will read it aloud," he said, "and
+let the council judge." The paper trembled in his hand as he spoke,
+and it was with a voice quivering with anger that he read the
+unfortunate Sarkies's production.
+
+Almost as the first verse was begun, however, a smile appeared on the
+faces of the members in assembly, and as the elder went on they burst
+out into uncontrollable mirth.
+
+Bullin dashed the paper on the table, and made as if he were about to
+leave the meeting. "I will depart," said he; "the devil has possessed
+you that you laugh at the mockery to my gray hairs."
+
+He had reached the door before restraining hands seized him, and he
+was brought back with many apologies.
+
+Notwithstanding their amusement, the council were resolved to make an
+example of Sarkies. Galbraith, however, made an effort in his defence.
+He hoped, he said, to bring the erring youth back to better ways. But
+notwithstanding all his persuasions, he was outvoted in this instance,
+even Bunny taking the elder's side, and the expulsion of Sarkies was
+decided on.
+
+Bullin was not inclined to let the grass grow under his feet. The
+formal letter was then and there written, signed by all the members,
+and handed to the clerk for despatch.
+
+It was now deemed advisable to bring the sitting to a close, and this
+was done with the same formal ceremony of prayer which opened it.
+
+The members now dispersed, the elder showing his gratitude for Bunny's
+support by insisting on driving him home.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+                        AT THE DIVAN EXCHANGE.
+
+
+When the news that Sarkies was cast out of the bosom of the church
+reached the family, there was at first consternation and despair. But
+pride came to their rescue. "I don't care," said Jimmy; and the mother
+and the aunt, tossing their heads, echoed his sentiments. Mrs. Sarkies
+returned a small box full of woolwork, the shop of the Dorcas Society,
+with a stinging note to Mrs. Bunny, in which she accused that innocent
+woman of having conspired to bring about the annoyance to which they
+were subjected. Mrs. Sarkies was convinced that it was solely through
+Mrs. Bunny's desire to have charge of the work of the Dorcas Society
+that all this had happened.
+
+The next Sunday the whole Sarkies family drove slowly past the
+tabernacle in a hired phaeton just as the congregation were coming out
+after service, and cut every member dead. It was glorious. They came
+back to their midday meal feeling a calm satisfaction at having
+revenged a great wrong.
+
+There was much discussion as to whether the family should join the
+congregation of the established church, or take the bolder step of
+going over to Rome--the latter for preference, as it would fairly
+spite their enemies. The question, however, was for the present left
+in abeyance, and until it was settled they decided not to go to any
+church at all. Mr. Sarkies himself felt a load lifted from his mind at
+this decision. He determined not to let his love affair rest, and,
+notwithstanding every precaution, managed to obtain an interview with
+Lizzie, by the simple process of clambering up the trunk of a cocoanut
+palm which leaned against the high wall surrounding the elder's
+garden. Mr. Sarkies climbed up sufficiently high to overlook the wall,
+and Lizzie stood on the ground below him. The glass-covered wall was,
+however, between them. The position was not dignified, nor was it
+exactly comfortable, and Mr. Sarkies dreaded the general publicity of
+the whole scene. Still, however, he came to a satisfactory
+understanding with Lizzie. When she finally turned and vanished amid
+the trees, her white dress flitting through the open spaces in a
+ghostly manner, Sarkies came down with a sigh of relief, and,
+arranging his somewhat disordered dress, walked slowly toward a
+cab-stand. Hailing a buggy, and jingling some coin in his pocket, he
+jumped in and drove rapidly toward the Fort. He had mentally
+determined to celebrate his success by having an evening at the Divan
+Exchange, a saloon kept by an enterprising American, who concocted
+wondrous drinks, where the billiard-table was good, and the ice-creams
+marvellous. There was quite a crowd of cabs collected at the door, and
+the place was full when Sarkies entered it. Over the bar was a huge
+transparency representing the face of a clock, with the legend "No
+Tick Here" inscribed in large capitals on its face--a motto often full
+of sore disappointment to the customers. Immediately below this stood
+Colonel William P. Tamblyn, the proprietor, watching the practised
+hand of his tapsters as they poured forth monkeys, dogs' noses, eye
+openers, maiden's blushes, and other drinks whose name is legion. From
+the rooms above came the click of billiard balls, and the monotonous
+call of the marker--"Fiftee--fiftee-two--good game, sar!" Little
+marble-topped tables were scattered about, and from a daïs in the
+corner half a dozen musicians regaled the company with a choice
+selection of airs, from the "Blue Danube" to "Yankee Doodle." The
+music was almost drowned in the buzz of voices. All nationalities
+except China were represented here. Colonel Tamblyn announced that he
+drew the line there, and a flaring poster both outside and inside
+announced that "Chinamen and Soldiers in uniform are not admitted."
+
+Sarkies obtained a suitable drink; he chose that pink compound of rum,
+mint, crushed ice, and peach brandy which rejoices in the name of
+maiden's blush, and bore it away with him to the billiard-room
+upstairs. The tables were full, and Sarkies, making himself
+comfortable on a bench, waited for his turn to come.
+
+Beside him sat a neat-looking man, clean-shaven, with red hair and
+small black bead eyes. His blue coat with brass anchor buttons
+explained his calling. His ducks were spotlessly white, and the
+pipe-clay on his canvas shoes evidently just dry.
+
+"May I trouble you for a light?" said the man.
+
+"Certainly;" and Sarkies handed him a small plated box containing wax
+vestas.
+
+The stranger lit a cheroot, and, returning the box, inquired, "Come
+here often?"
+
+"Ya'as--sometimes," and Sarkies took a pull at his drink.
+
+"This is about the first time I've been here; my ship has only just
+come in. Pleasant place this." And the stranger watched the end of his
+cheroot keenly to see that it was burning properly.
+
+"Have a game after this?" asked Sarkies, and the stranger agreed.
+
+They were able to get a table, and a small bet was made on the game,
+which Sarkies, much to his delight, won. The stranger paid up, and as
+he did so he remarked:
+
+"You play a very good game--may I ask your name?"
+
+"Oh, Sarkies--I'm in Apcoon Brothers."
+
+"The great shipping agents--delighted to meet you--allow me to present
+my card to you," and Mr. Sarkies's new acquaintance drew a card from a
+new leather case and handed it to him.
+
+Sarkies regretted within himself that he had not brought a card-case
+with him, and determined in future never to be without one. He bowed
+politely over the outstretched hand of his companion, and took the
+card between his fingers; as he glanced at it an expression of
+surprise came over his face.
+
+"Captain S. Lamport, Merchant Marine," he said aloud. "This is
+strange."
+
+A shadow passed over his companion's face.
+
+"I don't see anything strange in my name," he said a little sternly.
+
+Sarkies looked at him; there was an ugly scowl on his face, and the
+Armenian felt a little alarmed. "Not that, captain," he said; "only I
+know a person named Lamport--and she is--I mean she is a widow, and is
+going to be married."
+
+The stranger's brow cleared. "Let us sit down for a bit," he said. "I
+am much interested--and, sir, may I ask are you the happy man?"
+
+"Oh, no--the padre of our--I mean the Methodist church--a Mr.
+Galbraith."
+
+"Um! I see," mused Captain Lamport; "lots of money--eh!"
+
+"I expect so." And then with a knowing smile Sarkies added, "The padre
+has the church funds, y'know."
+
+"He! he!" laughed the captain, and poked Sarkies in the ribs; "sly
+dog--you're a deep one, you are."
+
+Mr. Sarkies, much flattered by the compliment, proposed a drink, and
+the captain assented. In answer to his host's request to "name the
+poison," the captain suggested monkeys, and the monkeys were brought.
+Then there was more billiards and more betting, then a little rest and
+more monkeys, then monkeys, billiards, and betting combined, and
+finally Mr. Sarkies knew no more.
+
+When he awoke again the stars were shining palely above him, and there
+was a faint flush in the east. His hands were resting on something
+damp on each side of him; he looked, and realized that he was on the
+open plain in front of the Fort. Instinctively he felt for his watch
+chain. It was gone. Mr. Sarkies rose to his feet, and the horizon swam
+before him. He placed his hand to his burning head, and staggered
+rather than walked toward the road. A late cab passed. Into this he
+entered and drove home.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                             EXIT MANUEL.
+
+
+During the last few days there had been great changes in the interior
+of the manse. The worn-out matting was renewed, and the squatter
+spider expelled from the corner where he had long revelled in
+security. The tumble-down sofa was condemned, and a comfortable lounge
+took its place. Everywhere there was a look of freshness. All day long
+there was the sound of hammering and cleaning up. Halsa and Mrs. Bunny
+personally superintended the reformation. Galbraith was willing enough
+to help, but he had no "hands," and was therefore relegated to his
+study. But with Manuel it was different. For the first time in his
+life Manuel realized what work was, and he was profoundly convinced
+that he and true labour would never agree. It was not enough that he
+had been called upon to clean and scrub, to hew wood and draw water,
+but insult was added to injury by Mrs. Bunny inquiring into the
+arrangements of the _menage_.
+
+"Two bags of sugar a month!" said that excellent woman, holding up her
+hands in despair; "why, if it were all used, the man must be a
+lollipop shop inside."
+
+"Who keeps the keys?" asked Halsa. She was halfway up a ladder, a
+small hammer in her hand. Manuel stood at the foot of the ladder
+holding it firmly with one hand, so that it should not slip, while
+with the other he held out at arm's length a plate full of tin tacks.
+The position was strained and unpleasant. "Who keeps the keys? Oh!"
+she shrieked, "how sharp those nails are!" and she drew back her
+fingers smartly and began to examine their tips. To one of them a tack
+was clinging. Halsa hastily descended, and Mrs. Bunny removed the
+offending tack. It left a small blue mark on the finger tip. In the
+meanwhile Manuel remained silent. He had no intention of replying to
+the question, and his yellow eyes glistened with pleasure at the
+little accident, which had apparently called away attention from an
+embarrassing inquiry. But Manuel was mistaken, for when Halsa had
+examined the mark for a moment, and was satisfied that it was only a
+prick, she returned again to the charge and repeated her question.
+
+"I keep keys," replied Manuel sulkily.
+
+"I told you so, Halsa," said Mrs. Bunny, waving a damp duster in the
+air. Mrs. Bunny had not mentioned the fact, but it was a little
+weakness of hers to refer to former prophecies after a thing had
+happened.
+
+"Never mind," Halsa said, "you couldn't expect John to look after
+these things." There was a sense of proprietorship in her tone that
+was delightful to Galbraith, who had come in to see how things were
+going on, and had been an unobserved witness of the scene. Halsa was
+looking very pretty. Her arms were bare up to the elbows, and there
+was a bright flush on her cheeks. The brown hair, usually neatly
+braided, had become a little disarranged, and curled in an unruly
+manner over her forehead. Mrs. Bunny suddenly remembered that there
+was something to do in the study, and Manuel, ever watchful for an
+opportunity to escape, laid down the plate of tacks and vanished
+noiselessly. Galbraith glanced round him, and then his arm stole
+forth. Halsa avoided the caress by stepping back, and asked him how he
+thought the room looked.
+
+"I never thought it could look so well," he replied, and he spoke
+truly. The magic of feminine hands had changed the cheerless-looking
+room into a bright, cosy chamber. It was not that the things were
+valuable; fifty pounds might have covered the cost of everything,
+except the American harmonium, which stood where the fireplace ought
+to have been. All the effect lay in the nameless power of arrangement
+which only a woman possesses--a touch here--a touch there--and the
+thing is done.
+
+"I am glad you like it," said Halsa, as she stepped nearer to
+Galbraith. "See how I've hurt my finger;" and she held the wounded
+member up for inspection.
+
+John took the small hand in his, and looked at the blue mark on her
+finger tip. It was hardly perceptible. The shadow of a smile flickered
+across his face as he kissed the little fingers tenderly, and then,
+drawing Halsa closer to him, kissed her once more on the lips--she
+nothing resisting now.
+
+Mrs. Bunny's discreet cough in the next room warned them of her
+impending return, and when the good lady came in Halsa had once more
+mounted the ladder. When she had finished her work she came down, and
+they all took a final survey of their labour, and were pleased by it.
+Then Manuel was recalled from the back of the house, where he was
+employed in solacing his feelings with a native cigarette, and cursing
+his existence in the _patois_ of Goa.
+
+A few orders were given to him with regard to clearing up some
+_débris_, and then the party, including Galbraith, went into the hall,
+where the ladies put on their hats, and, escorted by the pastor,
+returned home. The whole home party of the Bunnys, except Eddy, were
+to dine at the manse that night with Galbraith, and he was nervously
+anxious about the success of the entertainment.
+
+Manuel watched them as they went down the road. He shook his fist
+after the retreating figures.
+
+"Oh, yes!" he said, "Manuel this and Manuel that--Manuel light
+fire--light lamps--clean house--make fuss-class dinner--Sancta Maria!
+what Manuel not do!--Iyoo!" He crossed himself fervently, and went
+on--"Missus come--missus want keep keys--Manuel not a dog--Jesu!" he
+exclaimed, "there is that accursed goat among the new flowers." He
+hastened out of the door, drove the milch goat to the back of the
+house, and fastened her up securely.
+
+Then, coming back, he conscientiously carried out the final
+instructions given him--picking up the litter of cotton and tags of
+hangings which lay on the floor, and when this was over made his way
+to the kitchen, where he exercised all his skill in superintending the
+preparation of a "fuss-class dinner."
+
+Two things were a matter of regret to him: one that he was not
+sufficiently skilled to write out a _menu_ card, but this he hoped to
+arrange with the assistance of Pedro Pinto's son, who attended the
+school attached to the monastery of St. Vincent de Paul; the other was
+that there were to be no wines, for both host and guests were
+teetotallers, and the drinking of wine or spirits in any form, unless
+medicinally prescribed, was regarded as a deadly sin.
+
+Galbraith came out of his study a little before dinner-time to see how
+things were. Manuel was not there, and it seemed as if some unseen
+hand had set the table, had arranged that oddly pretty pattern of
+leaves on the snowy table-cloth, and placed that bouquet of fresh
+fuchsias beside the plate where Halsa was to sit.
+
+Galbraith himself looked years younger. He glanced about him with a
+satisfied air, and then going back into his study, waited impatiently
+for the sound of wheels to tell him that his guests had come. Punctual
+to the moment Mr. Bunny's brownberry came up. Galbraith stepped up to
+the door of the carriage, and helped out Mrs. Bunny and Halsa, the
+latter giving his hand a little squeeze. Mr. Bunny emerged last of
+all, a pile of wraps on his arm, and, after directing the coachman to
+return at precisely ten o'clock, followed his wife and Halsa Lamport
+into the house. They all assembled in the cosy little parlour, and in
+a few minutes Manuel came in. He whispered something to Galbraith, and
+then slipped out again. He had conveyed thus mysteriously the
+announcement that dinner was ready. They all went in without any
+ceremony; the ladies first, the men behind. Grace was, of course,
+said, but Galbraith took care that it should not be unnecessarily
+long. The dinner was excellent, and full justice was done to the meal.
+Manuel attempted to make up for the want of a written _menu_, that
+picaroon boy of Pinto's not having come to write it as arranged, by
+calling out the names of the dishes.
+
+"Krab cutlit, sar," he said, as he thrust the delicacy before Mr.
+Bunny. "Prong curry, madam--berry good," and he held the dish for Mrs.
+Bunny. Galbraith, however, interfered, much to Manuel's
+disappointment. He made up, however, for this by the air with which he
+filled the tumblers with water--the grand butler serving Louis
+Quatorze could not have done it with a better manner. At last it was
+all over; Mr. Bunny ate his last walnut, and washed it with a better
+manner. At last it was all and played patience; then there was a
+little talking, and precisely at ten the carriage came. Mr. Bunny
+could not be induced to stay a moment later. There was much
+hand-shaking, and a kiss for Halsa, soberly given in the Bunnys'
+presence by Galbraith, and received by the widow with becoming
+modesty. When they had gone Galbraith lit a pipe, and, opening an old
+volume of Ingram, set himself out for an hour's read. He was
+interrupted by a cough, and, looking up, saw Manuel in front of him.
+
+Manuel shifted a clean white napkin from one hand to another, and
+asked, "Dinner good, sar----yyerything praper?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Manuel; I am very much pleased with you."
+
+"Thank you, sar," and Manuel bowed; "but, sar, I come for leave."
+
+"Leave, Manuel?--do you mean to say you want to go?"
+
+"Yessar--missus come, and yverything spile--missus keep keys--missus
+take account--missus measure out sugar--tea--work too much. My mother
+also dead in Goa, and I want leave."
+
+Galbraith looked at him. "But I will increase your pay."
+
+"No, sar; all pay same like to Manuel when in service, but when missus
+come--I no stay. My mother berry ill."
+
+Galbraith smiled. "I thought your mother was dead," he said; "but it
+does not matter, you can go."
+
+Manuel bowed again, and retired.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+                           THE HAPPY PAIR.
+
+
+The combined news that Sarkies was expelled from the fold and that
+their pastor was, almost at once, to marry the pretty widow, became
+the property of the congregation the day after the meeting. In family
+conclaves Sarkies was regarded as doomed to eternal perdition, and
+heads were gravely shaken over Galbraith's choice. Still, he commanded
+their respect, and his influence was strong--so strong that Elder
+Bullin found he was unable to get supporters to move a resolution
+condemning the pastor's choice, and calling upon him to give up the
+care of his flock. Mr. Bullin urged that this was vitally necessary
+for the well-being of the community, but the severity of his action
+against Sarkies frightened some, Mr. Bunny's influence prevailed over
+others, and the general liking for Galbraith was so great that his
+flock began in a few days to extend a portion of their regard for him
+to his intended wife. The elder therefore failed, but his voice did
+not remain unheard both in public and in private. This, however,
+unconsciously helped to assist Galbraith's cause, as the elder was
+more feared than loved, and the people he was dealing with wanted real
+courage of purpose. Even if their objections had taken head, the
+agitation would have been confined to private whisperings and perhaps
+a solemnly worded letter to the Bombay Bouncer.
+
+At length the day came for the marriage, and the ceremony was
+performed in the tabernacle by the pastor of another congregation, an
+out-station resident, who came in specially for the purpose. The elder
+refused to attend, and forbade his daughters going; but this was a
+sight not to be missed, and both Lizzie and Laura were there. It is
+some consolation to know that their father did not discover this. With
+the exception of Mr. Bullin, however, every member of the congregation
+was present. Even Mr. Sarkies waited patiently at the chapel entrance,
+and as he stood he saw a neatly-dressed man step out of a hired buggy
+and pass into the church. When the bride came Sarkies slipped into the
+church unobserved and witnessed the whole ceremony. He was able also
+to recognise in the neatly-dressed man the affable stranger of the
+Divan Exchange. The bride, however, claimed his attention, and his
+friend was forgotten as he looked at her. Very pretty looked Halsa in
+her dark-gray dress, with hat to match, and when the words were spoken
+which made her John Galbraith's wife, the whole party adjourned to Mr.
+Bunny's, all but Sarkies the outcast and the neat-looking stranger,
+who passed him unobserved, and, getting into his buggy, drove away
+rapidly. At Mr. Bunny's all was very gay. As a special occasion
+glasses of ginger wine were served round with the cake, and the
+bride's health drunk amid much applause. With hearts warmed by the
+cordial, these emotional people felt that Halsa Galbraith was now one
+of them, and they one and all shook hands with her heartily. As the
+time approached for the happy couple to depart on their short
+honeymoon, order was called, and the guests, having arranged
+themselves soberly, listened to an exhortation from the Rev. Samuel
+Boase, the clergyman who officiated at the marriage. The worthy man
+discoursed at some length on the holiness of the institution, and it
+was only the sound of carriage wheels, as they grated away from the
+portico, that aroused him to the fact that the newly-wedded pair had
+slipped away unobserved. Hastily concluding his speech, the reverend
+gentleman included his amen in a rush for the bag of rice, and,
+seizing a handful, attempted to pursue the carriage, followed by all
+the guests. They were too late, however, and all came in hot,
+breathless, and a little disappointed. Eddy Bunny alone was satisfied.
+Armed with an old shoe, he had concealed himself in the shrubbery, and
+as the carriage drove by he aimed this at Galbraith with a precision
+acquired by long practice with the catapult. It was some little time
+before the victim recovered from the shock, and when he did the
+carriage was well on its way toward the railway station.
+
+The honeymoon lasted barely a fortnight, for two reasons, one being
+that the Rev. Samuel Boase was unable to take Galbraith's work for
+more than that period, and the other the important factor of expense.
+Back they came, then, from a short trip to the hills near Bombay. It
+was the first real holiday Galbraith had ever enjoyed. The long day's
+dream under the trees, the gathering of ferns in some secluded glen,
+the rest, and, above all, the dear companionship he had, combined to
+make it very sweet. Galbraith told his wife of the mental struggle he
+was perpetually undergoing, and received much help from her clear
+common sense and healthful sympathy. She in her turn gave him no
+half-confidence, but told him honestly the story of her life. She
+touched as lightly as possible on her former husband's ill-treatment
+of her, on his cruelty and neglect, for the man was dead. She told him
+how, two years back, the Mahi sailed from Cochin for the Mauritius,
+and from that time was heard of no more, until a solitary survivor
+came back with a dreadful tale of the sea. He told how the ship had
+been scuttled, how all the boats were rendered useless except one,
+into which the captain and two others escaped. Clinging to a spar
+himself, he had seen a great green wave swamp the boat, and then for
+him came three days of hideous agony, and at last rescue. Of the death
+of her husband no doubt ever crossed Halsa's mind. She had seen the
+newspaper reports of the inquiry into the disaster, and had
+interviewed the rescued man. She opened a school at Cochin, and was
+enabled to keep her head above water with this, and with the proceeds
+of flower-painting, in which she had some proficiency. Then came a
+fortunate legacy of some four hundred pounds, and she consulted Mr.
+Bunny, a cousin of her husband, on business matters connected with
+this. The Bunnys had repeatedly asked her before to make her home with
+them, and they renewed this invitation now in so kind a manner that
+Halsa accepted. It was an invitation to stay until she could obtain
+some suitable employment; but a year passed--"And you found the
+employment," said Galbraith; "you have to take care of me now." And
+Halsa smiled at him from under her dark eye-lashes in reply.
+
+Back they came, then, and even Elder Bullin was there to receive them.
+"Let bygones be bygones, elder," said the pastor, as he shook the
+stiff fingers the old man held out. Bullin mumbled something which no
+one heard, but all believed that a reconciliation had taken place.
+
+Halsa entered heartily into her husband's work. She discarded the high
+straw hats, the red ribbons, and fluttering white raiment, and the
+only trace of her former somewhat coquettish taste in dress was now in
+the exceeding neatness of her sober-coloured garments. She was quick
+and clever at figures, and Galbraith willingly relinquished to her the
+charge of keeping the accounts of the tabernacle funds. She wore the
+key of the cash-box in a chain suspended round her neck; and at the
+monthly audit Elder Bullin confessed that never had the cash-book been
+so neat or so well kept.
+
+"I do believe the old man is getting fond of me," said Halsa, as she
+stood by her husband and watched the elder as he slowly walked up the
+garden toward the gate, his big umbrella spread over him. And
+Galbraith, being in love, did what was expected of him.
+
+Now all this time a nameless horror was approaching nearer and nearer.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+                          THE DEVIL AT WORK.
+
+
+A dull, miserable evening, gray clouds, drizzling rain, and a damp
+heat. The loud blast of the conch horn from the Jain temple echoed in
+the heavy air. The sound made the window panes in the study of the
+manse rattle, and roused Halsa from her book. John had gone that day
+some miles away to attend a meeting of pastors, and was not to be home
+until late. His wife dined alone, and sat up in the study waiting for
+him. As the prolonged notes of the horn reached her, Halsa put down
+her book and held her hands to her ears. When the sound died away she
+felt that, for the present, further reading was impossible, and
+glanced at the clock which ticked in a dreary manner from the wall.
+It was nearly nine. She rose from her seat, and, after pacing
+the room for a few moments, stood before the window listening to the
+soft patter of the rain. The sudden crunching of the gravel outside
+under a firm tread roused her from the half-dreamy state into which
+she had fallen. The footsteps were strangely familiar--yet not
+Galbraith's--still, it could be no one else. In a moment she was in
+the passage and at the front door. She opened this with a little cry
+of welcome. "I am so glad you have come," and then she started back
+with a faint shriek, for the man who stepped into the passage and
+removed his dripping hat, diffusing a stale odour of damp clothes and
+liquor as he came in, was not John Galbraith, but Stephen Lamport.
+There was no mistaking him as he stood there, leaning somewhat
+unsteadily on a stout cane, the light from a wall lamp shining full on
+his face, the face she knew so well, and whose memory brought up days
+of horror before her. There he was, his small beadlike eyes shining
+brightly, and his red hair glistening.
+
+"Well," he said shortly, "so you're glad to see me--sure there is no
+mistake?"
+
+Halsa made no reply. She leaned against the wall, one hand held
+tightly over her heart; her face was white as death, and her lips
+moved tremulously as if trying to frame a sentence.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Lamport," continued her husband, "I happened to find
+out that he"--he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and Halsa
+shuddered--"is on the preach, and I thought I should come and look you
+up for old sake's sake, more especially as I have some business with
+you, and I should like to settle this at once." He stretched out his
+hand and touched her lightly on the shoulder. The touch seemed to
+rouse her to fury. She sprang forward and seized the collar of his
+coat with both hands.
+
+"Yes," she said, "you have business with me. Well, then, come
+here--quick!" She pushed rather than led him into the study, and,
+closing the door, stood before him with clenched hands. "Now," she
+said in a breath, "what do you want? I suppose that story of your
+death was one of your trumped-up _lies?_"
+
+Lamport laughed a little. "One question at a time. The story was not a
+trumped-up lie, though I suppose you are sorry it was not the truth. I
+ought to have died, but I was spared for you, don't you see? I haven't
+got time to waste telling you all about it; here I am, and what I want
+is--money."
+
+"Of course," replied Halsa; "did you ever want anything else?"
+
+"Not much, except to be even with you--and I have been even with you
+and your psalm-singing parson. I found out some time ago that you were
+here, and about to change your weeds, and I gave myself the pleasure
+of attending your wedding as an uninvited guest."
+
+"Oh, God, have you no mercy?" moaned his victim.
+
+"You'd better ask God to give you the dollars--you'll want them badly,
+if I mistake not," said Lamport as he seated himself in a chair.
+
+"How much do you want?" asked Halsa in a faint voice. What she desired
+was to gain a little time. All this had happened with such awful
+suddenness. If she could persuade this man to go away with all she
+had, even for a day, she could decide on some course of action. At
+present, beyond the one idea of getting rid of Lamport, nothing else
+crossed her mind.
+
+"Oh, a thousand will see me!" said Lamport. "I suppose you can give me
+a hundred now--take it out of the poor-box--and the rest I must have
+in three days, or I blow the whole gaff. I will tell you where to send
+it."
+
+Halsa stood before him lacing and interlacing her fingers. While
+Lamport was speaking she was thinking: money--there was no use in
+giving this man money, even if she could lay her hands on the
+impossible sum he named. She had never deceived John; she would not do
+so now, come what may. She was a brave woman, and rose to her trouble.
+
+"Stephen Lamport," she said slowly, "listen to me: you shall not have
+one penny from me--you can do your worst. God will help me."
+
+Lamport looked at her in amazement. "You damned fool!" he said; "do
+you know what the consequences of this will be?"
+
+"Go!" said his wife, pointing to the door; "I shall tell John
+Galbraith all myself--he is a good man--he will know. Ah!" and she
+sprang past Lamport, "John, you have come back--save me." She looked
+at Galbraith's face, and the glance showed that he knew all. She slid
+down and knelt at his feet. "Forgive me," she said; "God knows that I
+was innocent."
+
+As Galbraith entered the room Lamport retreated toward the corner,
+and, laying his hand on the back of the chair, waited for what he
+fully expected would happen. He was no coward, and was quite prepared
+for a physical struggle. Galbraith had heard all. In their excitement
+neither Halsa nor Lamport were aware that he had been in the passage
+almost as soon as they entered the study. The first few words that
+reached him rooted him to the spot, and he heard everything that
+followed. For the first time in his life he felt the wild beast within
+him awake. His breath came thick and fast, and then through it all a
+voice seemed to shout in his ears that he had no claim--that they who
+were before him were husband and wife, and he the outsider. The man
+lived a lifetime standing there. At last he could bear it no longer,
+and stepped into' the room. Gently, very gently, he lifted the woman
+whom he loved, and supported her with his arm.
+
+"I believe every word you have said; as for that man----" his voice
+failed him. He stood before Lamport with an ashy face that quivered
+with anguish.
+
+But Lamport was not going to give up the struggle. He had wandered
+here in a half-drunken state, bent on extorting money; if this could
+not be done he was in the humour for any mischief. He was almost
+sobered by what had happened, and his malice was ready to suggest the
+means of inflicting further misery. There seemed no chance of the
+physical struggle he expected. Well, he could wound in other ways than
+with the blade of Bill's knife, over the haft of which he had gently
+slipped his hand.
+
+"Look here," he said; "that woman there is my wife--she dare not deny
+it--I claim her."
+
+Galbraith's hold tightened round Halsa's waist, but she drew herself
+from him.
+
+"It is true; every word he has spoken is true; but he has forgotten
+the whole story--the ill-treatment, the wilful desertion, the devilish
+malignity of his last action. Oh, God is very merciful, is he not?"
+she cried hysterically; "and yet you," and she pointed to Lamport,
+"are my husband, and I suppose the law gives you the right to claim
+me. I am ready to go."
+
+Galbraith walked to the table and sank into a chair. He buried his
+face in his arms, and sat there silently. While Halsa spoke there had
+been a short but mighty struggle in his heart between the man and the
+priest, and as her voice ceased the priest had triumphed. The woman
+looked at him as he sat there, motionless and silent. "Come," she said
+to Lamport, "let us go--but first this----" She suddenly knelt at
+Galbraith's side, and, taking his hand in both of hers, kissed it
+passionately, and then rising walked out of the room into the night,
+her companion following closely behind.
+
+How long Galbraith stayed thus he never knew, but the gray light of
+the morning was streaming into the room when he lifted his head and
+looked around him. With a shudder he covered his face again with his
+hands. A wild thought struck him that after all it might have been a
+hideous dream, and he rose from his chair, but only to sink down again
+in despair as the horrible reality of it all forced itself upon him.
+He remembered it was Sunday, that in a few hours it would be time for
+him to be in church. Of course this was impossible. He felt that he
+could endure being in the house no longer, and, taking his soft felt
+hat, walked out into the garden. Which way had she gone? A sob rose to
+his throat as he thought of this--was he right? He began to doubt, and
+then it struck him that he would see Bunny. He would tell Bunny all,
+and act upon his advice; but as for the church, he felt he could never
+enter one again. What had he done that this awful misfortune should
+have come upon him? He bent his steps toward the road leading to
+Bunny's house. Although the sun was barely up, he found the old man in
+his garden, and he came forward cheerily to meet Galbraith. One look
+at his face, however, told him that something dreadful had occurred.
+
+"Come into my office," he said, and led John to the back of the house.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                          HUSBAND AND WIFE.
+
+
+On leaving the house Halsa and her companion walked toward the gate.
+She had snatched up a hat from the stand in the passage as she passed
+through, but had not thought of taking a cloak, and even by the time
+they reached the gate the steady drizzle had drenched her light dress.
+She stopped here for a moment, and, turning, looked back at the house.
+Through the mist of rain she saw the windows of the study and the lamp
+burning brightly. Within the study was--as she thought of him, an
+uncontrollable sob burst from her.
+
+"Are you going to stay here all night?" asked Lamport roughly.
+
+"Which way are we going?" she replied.
+
+"Any way I choose; go straight ahead. Keep alongside of me if you can;
+if not, follow. I want to get out of the rain."
+
+And Lamport, plunging his hands deep into his pockets, stepped forward
+at a pace so rapid that his wife was only barely able to keep up with
+him. They spoke no word to each other, but at intervals Lamport swore
+aloud to himself, and cursed Halsa. He was bitterly disappointed at
+the failure of his plans; he was furious with Halsa for following him
+as she had. He had not quite expected this. The drink was working in
+his brain, rousing him to madness.
+
+Halsa felt that every step was taking her away from the best part of
+her life, and yet with all the sorrow was mingled a proud sense of the
+sacrifice she had made. Then a great doubt came upon her. Had she
+acted rightly? Was this man--this fiend who had deliberately allowed
+her to commit a crime--worth the sacrifice? No, a thousand times no.
+She had it almost in her heart to turn back and throw herself at
+Galbraith's feet, to be his slave, to be anything, rather than parted
+from him. Then the horror and shame of it all made the hot blood rush
+in madness to her face. And so, on they went through the dark street,
+where lamps shone only at long intervals amid the ghostly gloom of the
+cocoa palms, and the rain now pouring fast. Her clothes were drenched
+through, and Halsa felt that her strength would not enable her to keep
+up with her companion much longer. At last she could endure no more,
+and slackened her pace. Lamport walked on for a little, and then,
+apparently suddenly missing her from his side, turned sharply.
+
+"Did I not tell you to keep up with me?" he said.
+
+Halsa made no reply, but the strain was too great for her, and she
+burst into a passion of tears. Lamport looked on her for a moment, and
+then, raising his clenched fist, he struck her down.
+
+"Damn you!" he said, "you can die there if you like." He had longed
+for this opportunity ever since they had left the house. He looked at
+the motionless body before him. "I have a mind to finish the job,"
+said he aloud, and his knife seemed to slip into his fingers of its
+own accord. He glanced round him for a moment, and as he did so he
+heard the rumble of carriage wheels and saw the flash of lights as
+they turned the corner of the dark street, not fifty yards ahead.
+Quick as lightning Lamport dashed down a narrow side road between two
+walls, and disappeared in the darkness. Almost as he did this the
+carriage came up. The horses shied backward on their haunches, and
+then stopped dead. There was the alarmed cry of feminine voices, and
+an anxious inquiry made in deeper tones. The groom, descending from
+the seat behind, went forward.
+
+"'Tis some one lying on the road dead or drunk, Padre."
+
+"Most likely the latter," was the reply as the Padre stepped out of
+the carriage and went forward. "Here, Pedro, hand me that light. Good
+God!" he exclaimed as he bent over the prostrate figure, "it is a
+woman--a European, too; there has been some devil's work here. Hold
+the light up, Pedro, while I lift her--thanks--Mother," said he to
+another figure, that of a woman clad in a long dark gown, who had
+followed him out of the carriage, "this is work for you; help me with
+her to the carriage."
+
+He raised the body in his arms, and with the assistance of the nun and
+two others, her companions, who had come out of the carriage, put
+Halsa in.
+
+"Is she dead?" asked one, evidently a young woman from her voice.
+
+"No," said the nun whom the Padre had addressed as mother, "she
+breathes yet. Pedro, drive on quickly."
+
+Pedro needed no further bidding; he waited but for a moment until the
+Padre climbed on to the box seat beside him, and then urged the horses
+on almost at a gallop through the endless avenues of palms. Finally
+they stopped before a large gate, and after much shouting it was
+opened, and the carriage drove in. They were met at the door by two
+nuns, and with their assistance the unconscious body of Halsa was
+carried in. The Padre examined the wound; there was a deep cut on the
+forehead, but nothing else. "There is no necessity for a doctor," he
+said, "but I shall tell D'Almeida to come to-morrow. This is a case
+of----" He touched his hand to his heart, and, giving the nuns his
+blessing, entered his carriage and drove off.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+Very tenderly the nuns cared for Halsa. She regained consciousness in
+the morning, but when the white-haired Doctor D'Almeida came he
+pronounced her in high fever. Then came a long illness, and after that
+convalescence. When she was better at last, she called the superior,
+Mother St. Catherine, to her side and told her her story. "And now,"
+she said with a faint voice, "I am better and must go." Then the good
+nun spoke to her long and earnestly, and Father St. Francis came. He
+bore her news that made her cheek flush and then grow pale. "Take time
+to consider," said the priest as he left her. A week after Halsa saw
+the lady superior once more. "I have considered," she said. The
+superior looked into her eyes: "It is well," she said, as she stooped
+and kissed her.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                         JOHN GALBRAITH GOES.
+
+
+About half an hour before the time fixed for morning service, Mr.
+Bunny, his face very grave and set, stepped out of the portico of the
+manse. He passed through the narrow wicket-gate and entered the church
+enclosure. The Sunday-school class was over, and a few children were
+loitering at the main entrance. Others were making their way home in
+little groups, a feeling of relief in their hearts, and with the
+consciousness of an unpleasant duty done. Bunny entered the tabernacle
+by a side door. The clerk was already there, and with him the elder,
+who had just dismissed his class. They were talking in low tones, and
+looked up quickly as their ears caught the sound of Bunny's footsteps,
+which rang with a harsh clang on the stone floor. A whisper had gone
+forth from the servants' quarters at the manse that something terrible
+had happened during the night. The attendant who cleaned the church,
+and who during the service pulled the huge fans which swung in a
+monotonous manner over the heads of the worshippers, echoed this
+whisper to the clerk. It is the way news is carried in the East, and
+it is very rapid. It is impossible to tell how, but the mysterious
+thing called bazaar gossip travels from ear to ear, from mouth to
+mouth, telling strange tales which afterward unfold themselves in the
+press as news, or are discovered in a government resolution. And so
+the clerk heard a story from the puller of fans, news of the last
+night, thick with strange scandal, and he was dropping this into the
+elder's attentive ears. They stopped their conversation as Bunny
+approached, and somewhat awkwardly wished him good-morning. Bunny
+merely nodded in reply, and, turning to the clerk, begged him to
+excuse him as he had something of importance to tell the elder.
+
+"If it is about Mrs. Galbraith, sir," replied the clerk, "I have just
+been telling the elder of it."
+
+Bunny looked at him sharply from under his gray eyebrows, and the
+clerk, who was also his official subordinate, quailed under the
+glance.
+
+"If so, you have been speaking of what you had no right to mention;
+but, as you appear to know something, stay and hear what I have to
+say, and you will hear what is the truth." Bunny then turned his back
+upon the clerk, and in as short a manner as possible described what
+had happened to the elder. He was no waster of words. He put what he
+had to say clearly before his listener, but his voice shook as he went
+on.
+
+The elder, for the first time in his life, showed that he was moved.
+He had opposed Galbraith, quarrelled with him, and had spoken bitterly
+against his wife. He had thought that if some terrible sorrow overtook
+them it would be a righteous judgment, although he had never been able
+to explain to himself why this judgment should fall on them. And now
+that it had come, that it was staring him in all its hideous reality
+in the face, the elder was stirred to the deepest pity and compassion.
+"God help them!" he exclaimed, passing his handkerchief over his face
+to hide his emotion--"God help them!" When he had said this he
+remained silent, digging the end of his stout stick into a hassock
+which lay near his feet. The clerk interrupted the silence.
+
+"Will there be service to-day?" he asked.
+
+"Let everything go on as usual," replied the elder. "Mr. Bunny and
+myself will settle this when the time comes--and now, Bunny, a word
+with you."
+
+The clerk took the hint and stepped back, and the two men, whose
+mutual jealousies had for some years past threatened to dissolve the
+community, walked arm-in-arm down the aisle between the grim rows of
+empty benches soon to be filled with Sabbath worshippers.
+
+"Will he go?" asked the elder.
+
+"Yes," replied Bunny, "and at once. I have advised this course. In his
+present state of mind there is nothing else for him to do."
+
+"Very well," replied Bullin; "we had better see him to-day; there are
+a few things that must be done--we, as members of the council, can
+arrange this."
+
+Bunny thanked him. "It is what I was going to propose myself,"
+he said; "we will see him after the congregation has been
+dismissed--perhaps you had better do this--he wishes to go to-night."
+
+Bullin agreed. "I suppose," he asked, "you have no news of his
+unfortunate wi----?" He stopped and looked somewhat awkwardly at
+Bunny.
+
+"No," was the reply, "there has not been time; but I shall arrange
+about that if it can be done. In the meantime Galbraith must go."
+
+As they spoke the church began to fill, and people entered in groups
+of twos and threes, or singly. Some, on entering, flung themselves
+devoutly on their knees and remained absorbed in prayer. Others made a
+pretence of kneeling. A few, a very few, young men put their faces
+into their hats, and probably examined the maker's name therein.
+
+The clerk, who also officiated at the American harmonium, played the
+first bars of an old hymn; and, to the astonishment of the
+worshippers, Elder Bullin rose from his seat, and, ascending the
+pulpit, gave out the hymn to be sung. He led it off himself with a
+fairly good voice, and was accompanied by the whole congregation. At
+its conclusion, and when the long-drawn _Amen_ died away with the
+notes of the organ, the elder, in a few brief words, informed the
+people that, owing to a domestic affliction, their beloved brother and
+pastor was unable to attend that day, that the trouble was of so
+serious a nature that it was impossible that the regular service
+should be held that morning, and he begged that the congregation would
+disperse after a short prayer and the singing of another hymn. The
+prayer was then offered up by the elder, and the hymn sung. One by one
+the people arose, after a little decorous silence, and it was not
+until they had passed out into the church enclosure that the full tide
+of their curiosity burst. Lizzie and Laura were besieged with
+questions, but they knew nothing, and the dread of the elder's wrath
+hurried them away. It became necessary for Mr. Bunny himself to go out
+and beg the congregation to disperse. He informed them that Galbraith
+was very ill, and that the kindest thing they could do was to go home.
+This they did after some little time. After a last instruction to the
+clerk to hold his tongue for the present, Bunny and the elder passed
+through the wicket-gate, and, walking slowly up the gravel path,
+entered the manse. The door of the study was slightly open, and Bunny
+knocked; there was no answer, and both he and the elder stepped in.
+Galbraith was there, sitting at his table, his white drawn face
+showing all the signs of the terrible time he had passed through.
+There was a hunted look in his eyes, which shifted their glance from
+side to side. Bullin held out his hand without a word. Galbraith rose
+and shook it silently, and then, turning, walked to the window.
+
+Bunny approached him and whispered in his ear, while the elder
+employed himself in smoothing the nap of his hat with his coat-sleeve.
+
+"Very well," said Galbraith; "you are right--the sooner the better."
+What was wanted were some papers relating to the church. Galbraith
+opened a drawer of his writing-table. They were all there, tied in
+neat piles, with labels showing what they were. He shuddered as he saw
+the handwriting on these labels, and his hand shook like a leaf in the
+wind as he picked out the bundles one by one and handed them to the
+elder.
+
+At last the necessary business was concluded, and Bullin rose. He
+attempted to speak, but was unable to do so; and gathering up the
+papers in his hands, stood for a moment as if irresolute.
+
+"God help you!" he said suddenly, and turning went out of the room.
+Bunny remained a few moments longer. "I will come back again," he
+said, "in an hour. It is not good for you to be left alone." He shook
+Galbraith by the hand, and followed the elder out.
+
+When they had gone, Galbraith rose and wandered round the house.
+Breakfast was ready. He had not touched it, and at the sight of his
+face the servant who was waiting stepped silently out of the room. The
+act was in itself sympathetic, and touched Galbraith. He had packed a
+bag with a few things, and it was lying half open on his bed. On the
+wall was a photograph of Halsa. He took it down, and, placing it in
+the bag, closed it and turned the key. He then went back into his room
+and waited. He knew what Bunny's absence meant, and he was burning
+with impatience for his return. On the table before him was a
+manuscript of his sermons. He seized it with a laugh, and began to
+turn over its pages. He had poured his heart into them. How had he not
+laboured? His was the voice that breathed consolation into many a
+stricken heart, and now that the time had come for him to need help,
+there was none there to give it. The Book of Books--it was lying there
+before him, leather bound, with gold-edged leaves--he knew it by
+heart; there was nothing in that that could help a sorrow like his.
+Bit by bit he tore the manuscript into shreds, and strewed it about
+the floor; and when the last scrap of paper had fluttered on to the
+carpet beside him, he felt that he had broken with the past forever.
+Faith--had he not faith? But what faith could stand against the
+cruelty of his trial? And then the remains of his religion burned up
+within him, and he strove to pray, but the words he uttered with his
+lips were unmeaning, and he rose from his knees in despair.
+
+It was somewhat late in the afternoon when Bunny returned. Galbraith
+was ready for him as he came into the house.
+
+"Did you get a passage?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," said Bunny; "you sail with the tide to-night."
+
+They entered a hired conveyance, and Bunny gave directions to drive to
+the quay. There was not much spoken as they drove through the streets.
+At length they reached the quay, and Bunny would have entered the boat
+with Galbraith, but he denied him. "No," he said, "let me go alone."
+
+Bunny regretfully agreed. "You will find a letter from me awaiting you
+at the Cape," he said as Galbraith shook him warmly by the hand.
+
+"You will not fail to let me know if there is any news of her?"
+
+"No," replied Bunny, "I will not."
+
+Galbraith sprang into the boat, and Bunny watched it as it was rowed
+toward the great ship lying in the harbour, the blue-peter flying at
+her mast-head. Slowly the boat moved forward until it entered the
+broad band-of dazzling light on the waters, where the sun's rays were
+reflected back in a myriad of flashing colours. Shading his eyes with
+his hands, Bunny watched the boat until it was absorbed into that
+marvellous blaze of gold, and passed from his sight.
+
+At last he turned and drove back home. But from that day nothing was
+heard of John Galbraith.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+                          THE GLORY DEPARTS.
+
+
+All attempts to secure a suitable successor to Galbraith failed. The
+scandal caused by the disaster, which had befallen the pastor, his
+mysterious disappearance, and that of Mrs. Lamport, deterred some;
+others were unwilling to leave their present posts; and of the one or
+two who would have taken charge of the flock, the sheep would have
+none of them. The law-suit with the Jain temple had, moreover, so
+impoverished the funds of the tabernacle that it was out of the
+question to send over the seas for a new spiritual guide. In the
+meantime the feelings of the community began to find vent in the
+columns of the Bombay Bouncer. Attacks were made against both Bullin
+and Bunny, and each attributed the attacks on themselves to the other.
+Bullin, in his headstrong way, openly charged Bunny with the offence
+of attacking him through the press. The latter denied it hotly, and
+replied with a countercharge. The result was a division of the
+community into two parties, and the beginning of the end as far as the
+existence of the tabernacle was concerned. About this time Sarkies
+begged for readmission into the fold. He was supported by Bunny; but
+Bullin, regarding this as a personal affront, strained every nerve,
+and secured at a general meeting a verdict confirming the former
+sentence of excommunication. It was at this meeting that the elder,
+amid much confusion, charged Bunny with having got Halsa Lamport out
+of the way to avoid inquiry. It was with the greatest difficulty that
+Bunny's friends prevented a physical struggle between the two leaders.
+Bunny and his following, however, left the church, where the meeting
+was held, leaving Bullin in possession of the field. It was thought at
+first that the matter would have gone before the law-courts; but this
+was somehow prevented, and the Bunny party, throwing off all
+allegiance to their former church, sought food for the soul from the
+Rev. Mr. MacGoggin, of the Free Kirk, and sat at his feet for
+evermore. Bullin, now left with undisputed power, conducted the
+services himself, and so great was his influence with the new council,
+practically creatures of his own, that he absolutely prevented any
+fresh nomination to the pastorship. In a brief period, however, his
+intolerance and bigotry outraged his own followers. In a few weeks his
+sermons, or rather lectures, were given to benches where the only
+audience consisted of his unfortunate daughters. At this time, too, an
+incident happened which fairly broke down the old man, and the
+congregation, at a great general meeting, finally dissolved
+themselves. The church was sold by auction. The worshippers scattered
+themselves elsewhere, and the history of the tabernacle was ended.
+Great was the rejoicing in the Jain temple. In honour of the occasion
+the eremite Mahendra, the terrible Swami, whose history will some day
+be written, swung himself for a whole afternoon by the simple process
+of fixing two iron hooks under his shoulder-blades, gaining thereby
+much credit and renown. An enterprising Parsee purchased the property.
+He called the manse "The Retreat," and lived there himself. He
+imported lime and orange trees in green tubs, and set them in rows
+about the garden. He may be seen among his plants any morning, clad in
+the whitest of coats and sheeniest of silken nether garments. Over the
+main entrance of the whilom chapel swings his signboard. It informs
+the public that Muncherjee Cheesecake is a general merchant. The
+flaring poster of an American cigarette manufacturer is pasted on each
+of the pillars of the gates. The cigarettes may be had from
+Muncherjee. They are very good.
+
+What happened was this. Sarkies, smarting under the indignity of the
+second expulsion from the church, held a family council with his
+mother and aunt. It was about this time that an epidemic of going over
+to Rome had set in, and the accounts of the perversion or conversion
+of several very great people in the British Isles filled the
+newspapers. Sarkies determined to be in the fashion, and in a few days
+the whole family were received into the broad bosom of the eternal
+church. They placed themselves under the guidance of an Irish priest,
+and, after the first plunge was over, Sarkies began to consider the
+confessional as a most excellent institution. _Presto!_ a wave of the
+hand, a benediction, and the sins of the past had joined the past. He
+got it all out about Lizzie, and was confident that he could bring her
+over to the church. The Rev. Father Faly was not unwilling to help
+him. Life was very dull under the cocoa palms. He informed Sarkies
+that the Roman Catholic ritual permitted a priest to unite a minor in
+marriage without the guardian's consent, and watched Sarkies go away
+with resolve on his face.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances nothing would have induced Lizzie to
+listen to Sarkies's proposals of flight, but circumstances favoured
+the Armenian. The girl had some spirit in her, and the eternal
+bullying of the elder was beginning to tell. Besides, notwithstanding
+the undignified, not to say uncomfortable, position from which Sarkies
+was compelled to plead his cause, the young man had a somewhat silken
+tongue, and then he had got to love Lizzie, and love always finds
+words. So the old, old story was repeated; and Lizzie, flinging over a
+few of her belongings in a bundle, was assisted by Sarkies over the
+wall, and, entering the buggy, drove off with her lover. This was done
+in the middle of the day. Sarkies knew that it was the occasion of the
+great and final meeting at the chapel, and that the coast would be
+clear. He did not reckon, however, on its being a half-holiday, and
+that he should meet Master Edward Bunny on his way back from school.
+The old Arab was urged to his fastest pace; but Eddy took in the
+situation at a glance.
+
+"My!" he exclaimed, "there's Jimmie Sarkies bolting with
+Lizzie--_youps!_"
+
+He had a shot at the buggy with his catapult; and it is worthy of
+record that on this occasion he missed his mark, and found that in his
+excitement he had used as a pellet his favourite marble, well known by
+the title of "Aunty." This in itself was a terrible disaster, and Eddy
+boiled with wrath. An opportunity for vengeance was at hand, however,
+for he had hardly gone a quarter of a mile when he met the elder
+returning home. The meeting had ended. The little community had ceased
+to exist, and with it the best part of the old man's life. He was
+walking under the shadow of the palms, his carriage following him
+slowly. His heavy eyebrows were bent in a frown, and his lips were
+twitching nervously.
+
+"Morning, Mr. Bullin!" exclaimed Eddy as he approached. The elder
+looked at him without making any answer, and passed on. But Eddy was
+not to be put off in this manner. He followed the old man, and,
+catching him up, remarked, "You'll be sorry when you hear it. I fired
+my catapult after them."
+
+"Go away, boy!" exclaimed Bullin.
+
+"Go away--oh, yes! I'm going--and so's Lizzie and Jim Sarkies. I saw
+them going off in the bug--oh!--hoo!--boo--ooh!"
+
+It was too much for Bullin. He darted forward at Eddy's speech and
+seized him by the arm. The next moment there was a cuffing and a
+ringing of ears that Eddy remembers to this day, notwithstanding that
+he is in a fair way to succeed to his father's appointment, and has a
+small Eddy of his own. When he had finished with the boy and flung him
+from him, the elder jumped into his carriage and bade the coachman
+drive home. Laura's scared face as she met him at the door, confirmed
+his worst fears.
+
+"Are they gone?" he asked. "Answer me, woman! Don't stand staring
+there."
+
+Laura burst into tears, and the elder with a hissing cry of rage
+re-entered his carriage and drove to the Sarkies's house. There was no
+one there. A sudden thought struck him. "To the Catholic Church," he
+shouted; and the coachman needed no bidding to drive fast. He arrived
+in time to meet Faly stepping out of the door. "Where's my daughter?"
+inquired Bullin, furiously shaking his fist in the priest's face.
+
+"I presume you are Mr. Bullin?" asked Faly in reply.
+
+"Yes--I'm Mr. Bullin; and I want to know what you've done with my
+daughter--you and that blackguard Sarkies?"
+
+"Gently, sir," was the reply. "Your daughter, I believe, is now on the
+way to the railway station with her husband. If I mistake not, her
+mother-in-law and another relative accompany the bride on the
+honeymoon trip. I presume even you will think that sufficient
+punishment?"
+
+Bullin attempted to speak, but in vain. His face was purple with rage,
+and his hands moved convulsively up and down.
+
+Faly was a little touched. "I don't think you need take on so, Mr.
+Bullin," he said. "Mr. Sarkies will make a most excellent husband."
+
+But here the elder found tongue. "Damn you!" he shrieked with a
+half-articulate voice, "I shall have the law on you and your brood of
+snakes. May God's curse follow----"
+
+Faly laid his hand upon the old man's arm. "Halt, sir!" he said; "you
+have said enough. Go to the law. If redress is your due, you will get
+it there. Go to the law, I say; but also go from here. This is no
+place for you."
+
+The elder stared at him for a moment, and then turning entered his
+carriage, and bade the coachman drive home.
+
+A week later he flung a letter across the table to Laura. They were at
+breakfast.
+
+"Send that woman her belongings," he said; "and mind you--forget from
+this day that she was ever your sister."
+
+And Laura bowed her head meekly to hide the tears that filled her
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                         AN ACCOUNT BALANCED.
+
+
+When Lamport left Halsa unconscious on the roadside and escaped into
+darkness, he ran on without stopping for nearly half an hour. At last
+he pulled up, fairly exhausted, and leaned against the wall on the
+roadside to rest and regain his breath. The run and the excitement had
+sobered him, and as he rested he began to think over his next move.
+Bill's knife was still in his hand. He closed the blade carefully.
+
+"If only they had been a minute later!" he said to himself as he put
+it away.
+
+Yes, if only they had been a minute later Stephen Lamport would have
+added another item to his long list of crimes. Not that the record
+troubled him in any way. His only regret was that he had been foiled.
+He had begun to hate his wife with the savage hatred that was born of
+the knowledge that he had done her terrible wrong.
+
+After a while Lamport began to walk on again as fast as he was able to
+escape the rain. It was now very late, almost in the small hours of
+the morning, and a longing seized upon him for more drink. He had
+reached Digby Street by this time, and, with that strange fatality
+which seems to haunt criminals, the fatality which brings them back to
+the scenes of former crime, he entered the Hotel Metropole. It was
+still full, and Lamport's entrance excited no particular attention. In
+the glare of the lamps, however, he was enabled to see that he was
+splashed and covered with mud, and his clothes, where they were not
+protected by his rough pea-jacket, were dripping wet. He glanced at
+his face in the oval mirror which gleamed from the wall. It was
+deathly pale, and he felt a cold shivering down his limbs. He moved
+into the crowd at the bar, and called out for "three fingers hot." At
+the sound of his voice Kavasji looked up at him. Lamport was, however,
+certain that the shaving of his beard had so altered his appearance
+that he was, comparatively speaking, unrecognisable; besides, as he
+was spattered with mud, and with his cap pulled well over his brows,
+he felt perfectly secure. He was mistaken, however. Kavasji was one of
+those men who have a born genius for remembering faces, and he
+recognised Lamport at once. He said no word at first, but silently
+mixed his tumbler of liquor and handed it to him. Lamport stood a
+little on one side at the end of the bar, and began to drink. When he
+had finished he called for another tumbler, and as the Parsee handed
+this to him he said in a low voice, "Bill is here; he is looking for
+you." Lamport started at the warning, but said nothing. He drank his
+second tumbler quietly, and, after paying his score, slipped out into
+the street once more. Kavasji had not given this warning with any
+friendly feeling toward Lamport, but simply for the reason that he
+wished to get rid of him. It was perfectly true that Bill had been
+there that evening. He might be back at any moment, and then, if there
+was recognition, there would perhaps be murder. Kavasji had not
+forgotten the scene when Bill woke from his drugged sleep and found
+that he had missed his ship and had been robbed. In order that the
+matter might be kept quiet, the Parsee had placed Dungaree in funds,
+knowing that it would mostly come back to him over the counter, and
+what little loss he might suffer would be well repaid by the absence
+of a police visitation. Kavasji had suffered much from such inroads.
+Bill had, however, shown no inclination to get another ship. As long
+as Kavasji's advance lasted he determined to wait, in the hopes of
+meeting Lamport, of recovering his lost property and of exacting
+vengeance. He was perfectly convinced that it was Lamport who had
+stolen the money. He had done similar things himself, and therefore
+knew. Moreover, the thought that he, Dungaree Bill, the old and
+hardened campaigner, should have been taken in in so transparent a
+manner was gall and wormwood to him, and therefore he swore to himself
+that he would have vengeance, even to the death of Lamport. So Bill
+husbanded his resources and waited, and at last the time came when
+Lamport was to reap what he had sown. This was Bill's last day. He was
+unable to get any further funds from Kavasji, and had with regret in
+his heart shipped on an American cargo-boat that was to sail the next
+day. He had stipulated for a last day on shore, and, as he had asked
+for no advance of pay, this was readily granted to him. Besides, he
+was known to the master of the vessel as a good sailor, and one whom
+he could rely on for good as well as evil. Lamport had hardly been
+gone half an hour when Bill re-entered the bar and feverishly looked
+round him. It was his last chance, and he had to go back to his ship.
+There was a look of disappointment on his face as he saw that the man
+he wanted was not there, and that after all he should miss him. A
+light of eagerness came into his eyes as Kavasji beckoned to him, and
+whispered a few words in his ear. "Where? Which way did he go?" said
+Bill. Kavasji pointed to the street, and Bill, turning, rushed out of
+the door. Once in the street, however, he looked blankly around. There
+was no knowing what direction Lamport had taken, and with a curse on
+his ill-luck Bill squared his broad shoulders and strode through the
+mud toward the quay. He could have--in fact, to keep up the tradition
+of his kind, he ought to have--hailed a cab and been driven toward the
+harbour roaring a wild song. But Bill did not fancy this to-night. It
+was enough for him that his prey had escaped for the present. If they
+should meet! Dungaree swore under his bushy black beard that no mortal
+should part them until he had exacted his tithe of vengeance to the
+uttermost farthing.
+
+In the meantime what had become of Lamport? When he entered the street
+again he found that it had practically given over raining, and the
+moon was shining brightly behind the dark masses of clouds that glided
+slowly after each other. Lamport looked up with an expression of
+relief, and his first thoughts were to make his way back to his
+lodgings as fast as possible, change his wet things, and sleep, if he
+could, over the events of the past few hours. He changed his mind,
+however, and, hailing a cab, told the man to drive him to the quay.
+Why he did this it is impossible to explain. It was the working of
+that fatality which was leading him to the reaping of the harvest.
+Perhaps the knowledge that Dungaree was on his track induced him to do
+this. He wanted to think. Perhaps an indefinite idea of escaping, the
+forlorn hope of being able to get to sea somehow, moved him. And so he
+went. When he reached the quay he dismissed his cab, and, walking to
+the end of the pier, leaned over the chains and listened to the _lap_,
+_lap_, _lap_ of the waters against the stone walls. Under the lee of
+the pier was a small fleet of boats securely fastened one to the
+other, and heaving in unison with the motion of the sea. The myriad
+stars of the street lamps twinkled behind him, and the signal lights
+from the tall masts of the shipping in the harbour shone like beacons
+overhead. A high wind had arisen, an augury of fair weather, and the
+now rapidly moving clouds alternately obscured and unveiled the
+moonlight. From the far distance came the dull boom of the breakers as
+they beat against the head of the island, and occasionally there was a
+jarring sound as the sides of the boats grated against each other.
+Lamport, leaning over the chains of the pier, noticed not one of these
+things. If he saw, or heard, they had no more effect on him than the
+flickering of one's fingers before the eyes of a blind horse. Yet
+Lamport unconsciously began to think of the past. Possibly the danger
+he had escaped and the hour were not without their influence on him.
+After all, he had nothing to fear, he repeated to himself. There was
+not the remotest possibility of Bill meeting him. Anyway he would make
+that possibility as small as it could be by shipping himself off this
+very day. And while he was thinking Bill came up the pier, walking
+rapidly with that rolling lurch peculiar to sailors. Lamport was
+unconscious of this. He never heard the footfalls behind him, and, if
+he did, paid no attention to them. When Bill was scarce ten yards off,
+Lamport lighted a fusee and held it to his pipe. The sudden hiss of
+the match and the flare of light stopped Dungaree at once, and, as the
+blaze lit up Lamport's face, Bill saw from the gesture, the poise of
+the head, the cunning glitter of the eye, that he had found his man.
+He drew back for a moment, and waited till Lamport had lit his pipe
+and flung the end of his fusee away. Bill felt the veins on his
+forehead stand out like knotted ropes. For a moment he stood, his
+sinewy hands working convulsively, and then, walking up to Lamport, he
+gripped him on the shoulder and swung him round.
+
+There was no word spoken. Quick as thought Lamport's knife was in his
+hand. It flashed a moment in the air, and Bill staggered back with an
+oath. He had been only just in time to escape the stroke, which
+nevertheless inflicted a slight flesh wound. The next moment the knife
+was dashed from Lamport's hand, and Bill's fingers were round his
+throat. He made an effort to struggle, he tried to shout, but, active
+and powerful as he was, he was like a child in the hands of the giant.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+It was ended very soon, that noiseless struggle, and Bill stood over
+the dead man. He felt for his belt, and regained it with a feeling of
+intense satisfaction. It was light, but the lost weight was balanced
+now.
+
+Bill was not of those who hesitated at a critical moment. "Over he
+goes," said he, and, lifting the body, he flung it over the chains,
+where it fell with a plash into the water. "And now to follow suit."
+He ran down the stone steps of the quay, and, carefully removing his
+boots, held them together in his teeth. He then pulled off his coat,
+and for the first time realized that he was wounded.
+
+"Better this way than any other," muttered he to himself as he made a
+bold plunge and struck out for his ship.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                FROM THE CHOIR OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS.
+
+
+Some one has said that there is a consolation in being well dressed
+that even religion can not afford. It was with the consciousness of
+this feeling that Lizzie Sarkies knelt by her husband's side at
+midnight mass in the Church of the Holy Innocents.
+
+It was New Year's Eve, and the young year was being welcomed in with
+all the pomp and ceremony of the Roman Catholic ritual. The old year
+was dying. It had covered its face with its mantle of broken hopes, of
+resolves unkept, of withered lives. With the New Year would come fresh
+hope and high resolve. The pages of the past were to be turned down,
+the fair white sheets of a new record opened, the Most High would lend
+an attentive ear to the voice of His people calling from the deep. The
+church was full. Of those who were spared from the dangers of the past
+some were here to thank the Godhead for his mercy, and to pray as
+humble creatures should for the light that never comes. There were
+others with dead hearts, hearts that had gotten the "dry-rot" into
+them. These came because the others came, because their ears were
+tickled by the music. Their lips murmured prayers that found no echoes
+in their souls, and as they looked upon the Host they gave no thought
+to the past. As for the future, with such as these the future has no
+lesson to learn. Sufficient for them was it that they lived, and
+sinned, and died.
+
+Lizzie, and many others beside her, occupied a place midway between
+these two classes. They had not as yet chosen their seats finally. As
+the solemn notes of the organ joined the silver voices of the choir
+Lizzie felt the full magnetic power of the music, and prayed with her
+heart of hearts. When from behind the high altar the low murmur
+of the prayers trickled down the aisles and buzzed in her ears,
+Lizzie's bright eyes wandered round the church up to the gallery,
+where the choir of dark-robed nuns sat; away into the dim colonnades,
+over the ghostly sea of heads; to the right, where close-cropped,
+straight-backed, and stalwart of limb, were ranged a contingent of the
+Royal Irish, then in garrison at Bombay; in front, where sat Madame
+Eglantine, the celebrated _modiste_, with a creation of forget-me-nots
+on her head. At all these Lizzie stared, and was comforted.
+
+How pleasant this was after the deadly monotony of the tabernacle!
+Here all the rough edges were smoothed off, the corners rounded
+neatly; there all was granite of the hardest.
+
+The banners swayed their silken folds. From her niche in the wall the
+Blessed Virgin, done in wax, gazed down upon her with lustreless eyes.
+The tinsel looked like gold. The incense breathed its subtle and
+intoxicating perfume into her brain.
+
+And now the priests walked in solemn procession up the aisle, the
+organ pealed forth, and the joyous voices of the choir joined in the
+hymn of adoration.
+
+At a bound Lizzie's heart went back from earth to heaven. She thrilled
+with a holy fervour as the music filled the church. Her eyes were full
+of tears.
+
+Suddenly the voices of the choir died away. The priests had bowed
+before the altar, and were praying in secret. The organ wailed
+tremulously. Lizzie stood leaning on the seat in front of her, almost
+breathless with excitement.
+
+All at once from the gallery a single voice took up the anthem--full,
+clear, and sweet. It seemed as if it were the answer of heaven to the
+prayers of the Faithful.
+
+
+             "_Christe cum sit hinc exire_
+              _Du per matron me venire_
+                  _Ad palmam victoriæ_."
+
+
+Lizzie turned her eyes toward the spot whence the voice came. The
+light shone full on the dark-robed figure, on the upturned face, thin
+and pale, and on the sad gray eyes of the singer.
+
+
+             "_Ad palmam victoriæ_."
+
+
+As the words reached her, Lizzie felt the light of a sudden
+recognition. She turned to her husband and pulled him by the
+coat-sleeve.
+
+"Jim," she said, "look up! See who is singing!"
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Galahad of the Creeks; The Widow
+Lamport, by S. (Sidney) Levett-Yeats
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