But close at hand there was no sound. He lay in absolute stillness, gazing along the verandah with eyes that looked into the future.
Minutes pa.s.sed. His pipe went out, and his drink remained by his side forgotten. He wandered in the depths of reverie....
Suddenly from the compound immediately below him there came a faint rustle as of some living creature moving stealthily, and in a second Max was back in the present. He sat up noiselessly and peered downwards.
The faint rustle continued. His thoughts flashed to the tiger he had slain the day before at Khantali. Could this be another prowling in search of food? He scarcely thought so, yet the possibility gave him a sensation of bristling down the spine. He remained motionless in his chair, however, alert, listening.
Softly the intruder drew near. He heard the tamarisk bushes part and close again. But he heard no sound of feet. It was a cat-like advance, slow and wary.
He wondered if the creature could see him there in the dark, wondered if he were a fool to remain but decided to do so and take his chances. Max Wyndham"s belief in his own particular lucky star was profound.
Nearer and nearer drew the unseen one, came close to him, seemed to pause,--and pa.s.sed. Max was holding his breath. His hands were clenched.
He was strung for vigorous resistance.
But as he realized that the danger--if danger there had been--was over, his muscles relaxed. A moment later with absolute noiselessness he rose and leaned over the verandah-rail, intently watching.
Seconds pa.s.sed thus and nothing happened. The rustling sound grew fainter, faded imperceptibly at length into the stillness of the night.
Could it have been a jackal, Max asked himself?
He stood up and looked once more along the verandah. Nick"s room was just round the corner of the bungalow. The nocturnal visitor had gone in that direction. With noiseless tread he followed.
He reached the corner. The soft glow of a night-lamp lay across the verandah. The window was open. He paused a second, then strode softly up and looked in.
A bamboo-screen was pulled across the room, hiding the bed. The lamp was burning behind it. As Max stood at the window, a turbaned figure came silently round the screen. It was the figure of an old man, grey-bearded, slightly bent, clad in a long native garment. For a moment he stood, then stepped to the window and closed it swiftly in Max"s face. So sudden and so noiseless was the action that Max was taken wholly by surprise. He did not so much as know whether his presence had been observed.
Then the blind came down with the same noiseless rapidity, and he was left in darkness.
Mindful of the mysterious visitor in the compound, he turned about and felt his way back to the corner of the bungalow, deciding that the lighted drawing-room was preferable to the dark verandah.
Reaching the corner and within sight of the lamplight, he stopped again and listened. But the compound was still and to all appearance deserted.
He waited for a full minute, but heard no sound beyond a faint stirring of the night-wind in the cypresses. Slowly at length he turned and retraced his steps, contemptuously wondering if the mysterious East had tampered with his nerves.
It was evident that his host had retired for the night with the a.s.sistance of his bearer, and he decided to follow his example. He closed and bolted the windows and went to his own room.
CHAPTER XIV
SMOKE FROM THE FIRE
"It always used to be regarded as anything but a model State," smiled Major Hunt-Goring, as he lay in a long chair and watched Daisy"s busy fingers at work on a frock for Peggy. "I suppose our friend Nicholas Ratcliffe has changed all that, however. A queer little genius--Nick."
"He is my husband"s and my greatest friend," said Daisy.
"Really!" Hunt-Goring laughed silkily. "Do you know, Mrs. Musgrave, that"s the fifth time you have mentioned your husband in as many minutes? If I remember aright, he used not to be so often on your lips."
Daisy glanced up momentarily. "And now," she said, "he is never out of my thoughts."
"Really!" Hunt-Goring said again. He looked at her very attentively for a few seconds before he relaxed again with eyes half-closed. "That is _tres convenant_ for you both," he observed. "I enjoy the unusual spectacle of a wife who is happy as well as virtuous."
Daisy st.i.tched on in silence. Privately she wondered how she had ever come to be on intimate terms with the man, and condemned afresh the follies of her youth.
"Have you been Home since I had the pleasure of your society at Mahalaleshwar I will not say how many years ago?" asked Hunt-Goring, after a pause.
"I went Home the following year," said Daisy. "We thought--we hoped--it would make our baby boy more robust to have a summer in England."
"Oh, have you a boy?" said Hunt-Goring, without much interest.
"He died," said Daisy briefly.
Hunt-Goring looked bored, and the conversation languished.
Into the silence came Peggy, fairy-footed, gay of mien. She flung impulsive arms around her mother"s neck and pressed a soft cheek coaxingly to hers.
"Mummy, Noel is comin" to teach me to ride this morning. I may go, mayn"t I?"
"My darling!" said Daisy, in consternation. "He never said anything to me about it."
Peggy laughed, nodding her fair head with saucy a.s.surance. "He promised, Mummy."
"But, dearie," protested Daisy, "you can"t ride Noel"s horse. You"d be frightened, and so would Mummy."
Peggy laughed again, the triumphant laugh of one who possesses private information. "Noel wouldn"t let me be frightened," she said, with confidence.
"Who is Noel?" asked Hunt-Goring.
Peggy looked at him. She was not quite sure that she liked this friend of her mother"s, and her look said as much. "Noel is an officer," she said proudly. "He"s the pwettiest officer in the Regiment, and I love him."
"Ha!" Hunt-Goring laughed. "You inherit your mother"s tastes, my child."
He looked across at Daisy. "She always preferred the pretty ones."
"I know better now," said Daisy, without returning his look.
He laughed again and stretched himself. "What became of that handsome cousin of yours who paid you a visit in the old M"war days?"
"Do you mean Blake Grange?" Daisy"s voice suddenly sounded so remote and cold that Peggy turned and regarded her in round-eyed astonishment.
"Yes, that was the fellow. He got trapped at Wara along with General Roscoe and Nick Ratcliffe. What happened to him? Was he killed?"
"No, not then." Slowly Daisy lifted her eyes; slowly she spoke. "He gave his life in England the following year to save some shipwrecked sailors."
"Did he, though? Quite a hero!" Hunt-Goring"s eyes met hers and insolently held them. "Were you present at the sacrifice?"
"Yes," she answered him briefly, but there was tragedy in her eyes.
"Ah!" said Hunt-Goring softly. "That made a difference to you."