As none of the three could understand Arabic, the order of the Emir
would have been unintelligible to them had it not been for the conduct
of Mansoor. The unfortunate dragoman, after all his treachery and all
his subservience and apostasy, found his worst fears realised when the
Dervish leader gave his curt command. With a shriek of fear the poor
wretch threw himself forward upon his face, and clutched at the Arab's
jibbeh, clawing with his brown fingers at the edge of the cotton skirt.
The Emir tugged to free himself, and then, finding that he was still
held by that convulsive grip, he turned and kicked at Mansoor with
the vicious impatience with which one drives off a pestering cur. The
dragoman's high red tarboosh flew up into the air, and he lay groaning
upon his face where the stunning blow of the Arab's horny foot had left
him.
All was bustle and movement in the camp, for the old Emir had mounted
his camel, and some of his party were already beginning to follow
their companions. The squat lieutenant, the Moolah, and about a dozen
Dervishes surrounded the prisoners. They had not mounted their camels,
for they were told off to be the ministers of death. The three men
understood as they looked upon their faces that the sand was running
very low in the glass of their lives. Their hands were still bound, but
their guards had ceased to hold them. They turned round, all three, and
said good-bye to the women upon the camels.
“All up now, Norah,” said Belmont. “It's hard luck when there was a
chance of a rescue, but we've done our best.”
For the first time his wife had broken down. She was sobbing
convulsively, with her face between her hands.
“Don't cry, little woman! We've had a good time together. Give my
love to all my friends at Bray! Remember me to Amy McCarthy and to the
Blessingtons. You'll find there is enough and to spare, but I would take
Rogers's advice about the investments. Mind that!”
“O John, I won't live without you!” Sorrow for her sorrow broke the
strong man down, and he buried his face in the hairy side of her camel.
The two of them sobbed helplessly together.
Stephens meanwhile had pushed his way to Sadie's beast. She saw his
worn, earnest face looking up at her through the dim light.
“Don't be afraid for your aunt and for yourself,” said he. “I am
sure that you will escape. Colonel Cochrane will look after you. The
Egyptians cannot be far behind. I do hope you will have a good drink
before you leave the wells. I wish I could give your aunt my jacket, for
it will be cold tonight. I'm afraid I can't get it off. She should keep
some of the bread, and eat it in the early morning.”
He spoke quite quietly, like a man who is arranging the details of a
picnic. A sudden glow of admiration for this quietly consistent man
warmed her impulsive heart.
“How unselfish you are!” she cried. “I never saw any one like you. Talk
about saints! There you stand in the very presence of death, and you
think only of us.”
“I want to say a last word to you, Sadie, if you don't mind. I should
die so much happier. I have often wanted to speak to you, but I
thought that perhaps you would laugh, for you never took anything very
seriously, did you? That was quite natural, of course, with your high
spirits, but still it was very serious to me. But now I am really a dead
man, so it does not matter very much what I say.”
“Oh, don't, Mr. Stephens!” cried the girl.
“I won't, if it is very painful to you. As I said, it would make me die
happier, but I don't want to be selfish about it. If I thought it would
darken your life afterwards or be a sad recollection to you I would not
say another word.”
“What did you wish to say?”
“It was only to tell you how I loved you. I always loved you. From the
first I was a different man when I was with you. But of course it was
absurd, I knew that well enough. I never said anything, and I tried not
to make myself ridiculous. But I just want you to know about it now that
it can't matter one way or the other. You'll understand that I really
do love you when I tell you that, if it were not that I knew you were
frightened and unhappy, these last two days in which we have been always
together would have been infinitely the happiest of my life.”
The girl sat pale and silent, looking down with wondering eyes at his
upturned face. She did not know what to do or say in the solemn presence
of this love which burned so brightly under the shadow of death. To her
child's heart it seemed incomprehensible,--and yet she understood that
it was sweet and beautiful also.
“I won't say any more,” said he; “I can see that it only bothers you.
But I wanted you to know, and now you do know, so it is all right. Thank
you for listening so patiently and gently. Good-bye, little Sadie! I
can't put my hand up. Will you put yours down?”
[Illustration: Good-bye, little Sadie p229]
She did so and Stephens kissed it. Then he turned and took his place
once more between Belmont and Fardet. In his whole life of struggle and
success he had never felt such a glow of quiet contentment as suffused
him at that instant when the grip of death was closing upon him. There
is no arguing about love. It is the innermost fact of life, the one
which obscures and changes all the others, the only one which is
absolutely satisfying and complete. Pain is pleasure, and want is
comfort, and death is sweetness when once that golden mist is round
it. So it was that Stephens could have sung with joy as he faced his
murderers. He really had not time to think about them. The important,
all-engrossing, delightful thing was that she could not look upon him as
a casual acquaintance any more. Through all her life she would think of
him--she would know.
Colonel Cochrane's camel was at one side, and the old soldier, whose
wrists had been freed, had been looking down upon the scene, and
wondering in his tenacious way whether all hope must really be
abandoned. It was evident that the Arabs who were grouped round the
victims were to remain behind with them, while the others who were
mounted would guard the three women and himself. He could not understand
why the throats of his companions had not been already cut, unless it
were that with an Eastern refinement of cruelty this rearguard would
wait until the Egyptians were close to them, so that the warm bodies of
their victims might be an insult to the pursuers. No doubt that was the
right explanation. The Colonel had heard of such a trick before.
But in that case there would not be more than twelve Arabs with the
prisoners. Were there any of the friendly ones among them? If Tippy
Tilly and six of his men were there, and if Belmont could get his arms
free and his hand upon his revolver, they might come through yet. The
Colonel craned his neck and groaned in his disappointment. He could see
the faces of the guards in the firelight. They were all Baggara Arabs,
men who were beyond either pity or bribery. Tippy Tilly and the others
must have gone on with the advance. For the first time the stiff old
soldier abandoned hope.
“Good-bye, you fellows! God bless you!” he cried, as a negro pulled at
his camel's nose-ring and made him follow the others. The women came
after him, in a misery too deep for words. Their departure was a relief
to the three men who were left.
“I am glad they are gone,” said Stephens, from his heart.
“Yes, yes, it is better,” cried Fardet. “How long are we to wait?”
“Not very long now,” said Belmont, grimly, as the Arabs closed in around
them.
The Colonel and the three women gave one backward glance when they came
to the edge of the oasis. Between the straight stems of the palms they
saw the gleam of the fire, and above the group of Arabs they caught a
last glimpse of the three white hats. An instant later, the camels began
to trot, and when they looked back once more the palm grove was only a
black clump with the vague twinkle of a light somewhere in the heart of
it. As with yearning eyes they gazed at that throbbing red point in the
darkness, they passed over the edge of the depression, and in an instant
the huge, silent, moonlit desert was round them without a sign of the
oasis which they had left. On every side the velvet, blue-black sky,
with its blazing stars, sloped downwards to the vast, dun-coloured
plain. The two were blurred into one at their point of junction.
The women had sat in the silence of despair, and the Colonel had been
silent also--for what could he say?--but suddenly all four started in
their saddles, and Sadie gave a sharp cry of dismay. In the hush of the
night there had come from behind them the petulant crack of a rifle,
then another, then several together, with a brisk rat-tat-tat, and then,
after an interval, one more.
“It may be the rescuers! It may be the Egyptians!” cried Mrs. Belmont,
with a sudden flicker of hope. “Colonel Cochrane, don't you think it may
be the Egyptians?”
“Yes, yes,” Sadie whimpered. “It must be the Egyptians.”
The Colonel had listened expectantly, but all was silent again. Then he
took his hat off with a solemn gesture.
“There is no use deceiving ourselves, Mrs. Belmont,” said he; “we may
as well face the truth. Our friends are gone from us, but they have met
their end like brave men.”
“But why should they fire their guns? They had---- they had spears.” She
shuddered as she said it.
“That is true,” said the Colonel. “I would not for the world take away
any real grounds of hope which you may have; but, on the other hand,
there is no use in preparing bitter disappointments for ourselves. If
we had been listening to an attack, we should have heard some reply.
Besides, an Egyptian attack would have been an attack in force. No doubt
it _is_, as you say, a little strange that they should have wasted their
cartridges,--by Jove, look at that!”
He was pointing over the eastern desert. Two figures were moving across
its expanse, swiftly and stealthily, furtive dark shadows against the
lighter ground. They saw them dimly, dipping and rising over the rolling
desert, now lost, now reappearing in the uncertain light. They were
flying away from the Arabs. And then, suddenly they halted upon the
summit of a sand-hill, and the prisoners could see them outlined plainly
against the sky. They were camel-men, but they sat their camels astride
as a horseman sits his horse.
“Gippy Camel Corps!” cried the Colonel.
“Two men,” said Miss Adams, in a voice of despair.
“Only a vedette, ma'am! Throwing feelers out all over the desert. This
is one of them. Main body ten miles off, as likely as not. There they go
giving the alarm! Good old Camel Corps!”
The self-contained, methodical soldier had suddenly turned almost
inarticulate with his excitement. There was a red flash upon the top of
the sand-hill, and then another, followed by the crack of the rifles.
Then with a whisk the two figures were gone, as swiftly and silently as
two trout in a stream.
The Arabs had halted for an instant, as if uncertain whether they should
delay their journey to pursue them or not. There was nothing left to
pursue now, for amid the undulations of the sand-drift the vedettes
might have gone in any direction. The Emir galloped back along the line,
with exhortations and orders. Then the camels began to trot, and the
hopes of the prisoners were dulled by the agonies of the terrible jolt.
Mile after mile and mile after mile they sped onwards over that vast
expanse, the women clinging as best they might to the pommels, the
Colonel almost as spent as they, but still keenly on the lookout for any
sign of the pursuers.
“I think---- I think,” cried Mrs. Belmont, “that something is moving in
front of us.”
The Colonel raised himself upon his saddle, and screened his eyes from
the moonshine.
“By Jove, you're right there, ma'am. There are men over yonder.”
They could all see them now, a straggling line of riders far ahead of
them in the desert.
“They are going in the same direction as we,” cried Mrs. Belmont, whose
eyes were very much better than the Colonel's.
Cochrane muttered an oath into his moustache.
“Look at the tracks there,” said he; “of course, it's our own vanguard
who left the palm grove before us. The chief keeps us at this infernal
pace in order to close up with them.”
As they drew closer they could see plainly that it was indeed the other
body of Arabs, and presently the Emir Wad Ibrahim came trotting back to
take counsel with the Emir Abderrahman. They pointed in the direction in
which the vedettes had appeared, and shook their heads like men who
have many and grave misgivings. Then the raiders joined into one long,
straggling line, and the whole body moved steadily on towards the
Southern Cross, which was twinkling just over the skyline in front of
them. Hour after hour the dreadful trot continued, while the fainting
ladies clung on convulsively, and Cochrane, worn out but indomitable,
encouraged them to hold out, and peered backwards over the desert
for the first glad signs of their pursuers. The blood throbbed in his
temples, and he cried that he heard the roll of drums coming out of the
darkness. In his feverish delirium he saw clouds of pursuers at their
very heels, and during the long night he was for ever crying glad
tidings which ended in disappointment and heartache. The rise of the sun
showed the desert stretching away around them, with nothing moving upon
its monstrous face except themselves. With dull eyes and heavy hearts
they stared round at that huge and empty expanse. Their hopes thinned
away like the light morning mist upon the horizon.
It was shocking to the ladies to look at their companion and to think
of the spruce, hale old soldier who had been their fellow-passenger from
Cairo. As in the case of Miss Adams, old age seemed to have pounced upon
him in one spring. His hair, which had grizzled hour by hour during his
privations, was now of a silvery white. White stubble, too, had obscured
the firm, clean line of his chin and throat. The veins of his face were
injected and his features were shot with heavy wrinkles. He rode
with his back arched and his chin sunk upon his breast, for the old,
time-rotted body was worn out, but in his bright, alert eyes there was
always a trace of the gallant tenant who lived in the shattered house.
Delirious, spent, and dying, he preserved his chivalrous, protecting
air as he turned to the ladies, shot little scraps of advice and
encouragement at them, and peered back continually for the help which
never came.
An hour after sunrise the raiders called a halt, and food and water
were served out to all. Then at a more moderate pace they pursued
their southern journey, their long, straggling line trailing out over
a quarter of a mile of desert. From their more careless bearing and the
way in which they chatted as they rode, it was clear that they thought
that they had shaken off their pursuers. Their direction now was east
as well as south, and it was evidently their intention after this long
detour to strike the Nile again at some point far above the Egyptian
outposts. Already the character of the scenery was changing, and they
were losing the long levels of the pebbly desert, and coming once more
upon those fantastic, sunburned black rocks and that rich orange sand
through which they had already passed. On every side of them rose
the scaly, conical hills with their loose, slaglike _débris_,
and jagged-edged khors, with sinuous streams of sand running like
watercourses down their centre. The camels followed each other, twisting
in and out among the boulders, and scrambling with their adhesive,
spongy feet over places which would have been impossible for horses.
Among the broken rocks those behind could sometimes only see the long,
undulating, darting necks of the creatures in front, as if it were some
nightmare procession of serpents. Indeed, it had much the effect of a
dream upon the prisoners, for there was no sound, save the soft, dull
padding and shuffling of the feet. The strange, wild frieze moved slowly
and silently onwards amid a setting of black stone and yellow sand, with
the one arch of vivid blue spanning the rugged edges of the ravine.
Miss Adams, who had been frozen into silence during the long cold night,
began to thaw now in the cheery warmth of the rising sun. She looked
about her, and rubbed her thin hands together.
“Why, Sadie,” she remarked, “I thought I heard you in the night, dear,
and now I see that you have been crying.”
“I have been thinking, Auntie.” “Well, we must try and think of others,
dearie, and not of ourselves.” “It's not of myself, Auntie.” “Never fret
about me, Sadie.” “No, Auntie, I was not thinking of you.” “Was it of
any one in particular.” “Of Mr. Stephens, Auntie. How gentle he was,
and how brave! To think of him fixing up every little thing for us,
and trying to pull his jacket over his poor roped-up hands, with those
murderers waiting all round his. He's my saint and hero from now ever
after.”
“Well, he's out of his troubles anyhow,” said Miss Adams, with that
bluntness which the years bring with them.
“Then I wish I was also.”
“I don't see how that would help him.”
“Well, I think he might feel less lonesome,” said Sadie, and drooped her
saucy little chin upon her breast.
The four had been riding in silence for some little time, when the
Colonel clapped his hand to his brow with a gesture of dismay.
“Good God!” he cried, “I am going off my head.”
Again and again they had perceived it during the night, but he had
seemed quite rational since daybreak. They were shocked, therefore, at
this sudden outbreak, and tried to calm him with soothing words.
“Mad as a hatter,” he shouted. “Whatever do you think I saw?”
“Don't trouble about it, whatever it was,” said Mrs. Belmont, laying her
hand soothingly upon his as the camels closed together. “It is no wonder
that you are overdone. You have thought and worked for all of us so
long. We shall halt presently, and a few hours' sleep will quite restore
you.”
But the Colonel looked up again, and again he cried out in his agitation
and surprise.
“I never saw anything plainer in my life,” he groaned. “It is on
the point of rock on our right front,--poor old Stuart with my red
cummerbund round his head just the same as we left him.”
The ladies had followed the direction of the Colonel's frightened gaze,
and in an instant they were all as amazed as he.
[Illustration: On this pinnacle stood a motionless figure p242]
There was a black, bulging ridge like a bastion upon the right side of
the terrible khor up which the camels were winding. At one point it rose
into a small pinnacle. On this pinnacle stood a solitary, motionless
figure clad entirely in black, save for a brilliant dash of scarlet upon
his head. There could not surely be two such short, sturdy figures or
such large, colourless faces in the Libyan desert. His shoulders were
stooping forward, and he seemed to be staring intently down into
the ravine. His pose and outline were like a caricature of the great
Napoleon.
“Can it possibly be he?”
“It must be. It is!” cried the ladies. “You see he is looking towards us
and waving his hand.”
“Good Heavens! They'll shoot him! Get down, you fool, or you'll
be shot!” roared the Colonel. But his dry throat would only emit a
discordant croaking.
Several of the Dervishes had seen the singular apparition upon the
hill, and had un-slung their Remingtons, but a long arm suddenly shot up
behind the figure of the Birmingham clergyman, a brown hand seized upon
his skirts, and he disappeared with a snap. Higher up the pass, just
below the spot where Mr. Stuart had been standing, appeared the tall
figure of the Emir Abderrahman. He had sprung upon a boulder, and was
shouting and waving his arms, but the shouts were drowned in a long,
rippling roar of musketry from each side of the khor. The bastion-like
cliff was fringed with gun-barrels, with red tarbooshes drooping over
the triggers. From the other lip also came the long spurts of flame
and the angry clatter of the rifles. The raiders were caught in an
ambuscade. The Emir fell, but was up again and waving. There was
a splotch of blood upon his long white beard. He kept pointing and
gesticulating, but his scattered followers could not understand what he
wanted. Some of them came tearing down the pass, and some from behind
were pushing to the front. A few dismounted and tried to climb up sword
in hand to that deadly line of muzzles, but one by one they were hit,
and came rolling from rock to rock to the bottom of the ravine. The
shooting was not very good. One negro made his way unharmed up the whole
side, only to have his brains dashed out with the butt-end of a Martini
at the top. The Emir had fallen off his rock and lay in a crumpled heap,
like a brown and white patch-work quilt at the bottom of it. And then
when half of them were down it became evident, even to those exalted
fanatical souls, that there was no chance for them, and that they must
get out of these fatal rocks and into the desert again. They galloped
down the pass, and it is a frightful thing to see a camel galloping over
broken ground. The beast's own terror, his ungainly bounds, the sprawl
of his four legs all in the air together, his hideous cries, and the
yells of his rider who is bucked high from his saddle with every spring,
make a picture which is not to be forgotten. The women screamed as
this mad torrent of frenzied creatures came pouring past them, but the
Colonel edged his camel and theirs farther and farther in among the
rocks and away from the retreating Arabs. The air was full of whistling
bullets, and they could hear them smacking loudly against the stones all
round them.
“Keep quiet, and they'll pass us,” whispered the Colonel, who was all
himself again now that the hour for action had arrived. “I wish to
Heaven I could see Tippy Tilly or any of his friends. Now is the time
for them to help us.” He watched the mad stream of fugitives as they
flew past upon their shambling, squattering, loose-jointed beasts, but
the black face of the Egyptian gunner was not among them.
And now it really did seem as if the whole body of them, in their
haste to get clear of the ravine, had not a thought to spend upon the
prisoners. The rush was past, and only stragglers were running the
gauntlet of the fierce fire which poured upon them from above. The
last of all, a young Baggara with a black moustache and pointed beard,
looked up as he passed and shook his sword in impotent passion at the
Egyptian riflemen. At the same instant a bullet struck his camel, and
the creature collapsed, all neck and legs, upon the ground. The young
Arab sprang off its back, and, seizing its nose-ring, he beat it
savagely with the flat of his sword to make it stand up. But the dim,
glazing eye told its own tale, and in desert warfare the death of the
beast is the death of the rider. The Baggara glared round like a lion
at bay, his dark eyes flashing murderously from under his red turban.
A crimson spot, and then another, sprang out upon his dark skin, but he
never winced at the bullet wounds. His fierce gaze had fallen upon the
prisoners, and with an exultant shout he was dashing towards them, his
broad-bladed sword gleaming above his head. Miss Adams was the nearest
to him, but at the sight of the rushing figure and the maniac face she
threw herself off the camel upon the far side. The Arab bounded on to
a rock and aimed a thrust at Mrs. Belmont, but before the point could
reach her the Colonel leaned forward with his pistol and blew the man's
head in. Yet with a concentrated rage, which was superior even to the
agony of death, the fellow lay kicking and striking, bounding about
among the loose stones like a fish upon the shingle.
[Illustration: The Colonel leaned forward with his pistol p247]
“Don't be frightened, ladies,” cried the Colonel. “He is quite dead, I
assure you. I am so sorry to have done this in your presence, but the
fellow was dangerous. I had a little score of my own to settle with him,
for he was the man who tried to break my ribs with his Remington. I hope
you are not hurt, Miss Adams! One instant, and I will come down to you.”
But the old Boston lady was by no means hurt, for the rocks had been so
high that she had a very short distance to fall from her saddle. Sadie,
Mrs. Belmont, and Colonel Cochrane had all descended by slipping on to
the boulders and climbing down from them. But they found Miss Adams on
her feet, and waving the remains of her green veil in triumph.
“Hurrah, Sadie! Hurrah, my own darling Sadie!” she was shrieking. “We
are saved, my girl, we are saved after all.”
“By George, so we are!” cried the Colonel, and they all shouted in an
ecstasy together.
But Sadie had learned to think more about others during those terrible
days of schooling. Her arms were round Mrs. Belmont, and her cheek
against hers.
“You dear, sweet angel,” she cried, “how can we have the heart to be
glad when you--when you----”
“But I don't believe it is so,” cried the brave Irishwoman. “No, I'll
never believe it until I see John's body lying before me. And when I see
that, I don't want to live to see anything more.”
The last Dervish had clattered down the khor, and now above them on
either cliff they could see the Egyptians--tall, thin, square-shouldered
figures, looking, when outlined against the blue sky, wonderfully
like the warriors in the ancient bas-reliefs. Their camels were in the
background, and they were hurrying to join them. At the same time others
began to ride down from the farther end of the ravine, their dark
faces flushed and their eyes shining with the excitement of victory and
pursuit. A very small Englishman, with a straw-coloured moustache and a
weary manner, was riding at the head of them. He halted his camel beside
the fugitives and saluted the ladies. He wore brown boots and brown
belts with steel buckles, which looked trim and workmanlike against his
kharki uniform.
“Had 'em that time--had 'em proper!” said he. “Very glad to have been of
any assistance, I'm Shaw. Hope you're none the worse for it all. What I
mean, it's rather rough work for ladies.”
“You're from Haifa, I suppose?” asked the Colonel.
“No, we're from the other show. We're the Sarras crowd, you know. We met
in the desert, and we headed 'em off, and the other Johnnies headed
them behind. We've got 'em on toast, I tell you. Get up on that rock and
you'll see things happen. It's going to be a knockout in one round this
time.”
“We left some of our people at the wells. We are very uneasy about
them,” said the Colonel. “I suppose you have not heard anything of
them?”
The young officer looked serious and shook his head. “Bad job that!”
said he. “They're a poisonous crowd when you put 'em in a corner. What
I mean, we never expected to see you alive; and we're very glad to pull
any of you out of the fire. The most we hoped was that we might revenge
you.”
“Any other Englishman with you?” “Archer is with the flanking party.
He'll have to come past, for I don't think there is any other way
down. We've got one of your chaps up there--a funny old bird with a
red topknot. See you later, I hope! Good day, ladies!” He touched his
helmet, tapped his camel, and trotted on after his men.
“We can't do better than stay where we are until they are all past,”
said the Colonel, for it was evident now that the men from above would
have to come round. In a broken single file they went past, black men
and brown, Soudanese and fellaheen, but all of the best, for the Camel
Corps is the _corps d'elite_ of the Egyptian army. Each had a brown
bandolier over his chest and his rifle held across his thigh. A large
man with a drooping black moustache and a pair of binoculars in his hand
was riding at the side of them.
“Hulloa, Archer!” croaked the Colonel.
The officer looked at him with the vacant, unresponsive eye of a
complete stranger.
“I'm Cochrane, you know! We travelled up together.”
“Excuse me, sir, but you have the advantage of me,” said the officer.
“I knew a Colonel Cochrane, but you are not the man. He was three inches
taller than you, with black hair and----”
“That's all right,” cried the Colonel, testily. “You try a few days with
the Dervishes, and see if your friends will recognise you!”
“Good God, Cochrane, is it really you? I could not have believed it.
Great Scott, what you must have been through! I've heard before of
fellows going grey in a night, but, by Jove----”
“Quite so,” said the Colonel, flushing. “Allow me to hint to you,
Archer, that if you could get some food and drink for these ladies,
instead of discussing my personal appearance, it would be much more
practical.”
“That's all right,” said Captain Archer.
“Your friend Stuart knows that you are here, and he is bringing some
stuff round for you. Poor fare, ladies, but the best we have! You're an
old soldier, Cochrane. Get up on the rocks presently, and you'll see a
lovely sight. No time to stop, for we shall be in action again in five
minutes. Anything I can do before I go?”
“You haven't got such a thing as a cigar?” asked the Colonel, wistfully.
[Illustration: You haven't got such a thing as a cigar p253]
Archer drew a thick satisfying partaga from his case and handed it down,
with half-a-dozen wax vestas. Then he cantered after his men, and the
old soldier leaned back against the rock and drew in the fragrant smoke.
It was then that his jangled nerves knew the full virtue of tobacco, the
gentle anodyne which stays the failing strength and soothes the worrying
brain. He watched the dim, blue reek swirling up from him, and he felt
the pleasant, aromatic bite upon his palate, while a restful languor
crept over his weary and harassed body. The three ladies sat together
upon a flat rock.
“Good land, what a sight you are, Sadie!” cried Miss Adams, suddenly,
and it was the first reappearance of her old self. “What _would_ your
mother say if she saw you? Why, sakes alive, your hair is full of straw
and your frock clean crazy!”
“I guess we all want some setting to right,” said Sadie, in a voice
which was much more subdued than that of the Sadie of old. “Mrs.
Belmont, you look just too perfectly sweet anyhow, but if you'll allow
me, I'll fix your dress for you.”
But Mrs. Belmont's eyes were far away, and she shook her head sadly as
she gently put the girl's hands aside.
“I do not care how I look. I cannot think of it,” said she; “could
_you_, if you had left the man you love behind you, as I have mine?”
“I'm begin--beginning to think I have,” sobbed poor Sadie, and buried
her hot face in Mrs. Belmont's motherly bosom.