The road that led to the cantonments was ill-made and stony, but she
dashed along it like a mad creature, unconscious of everything save the
one absorbing desire to escape. Ronnie was not in sight, but she
scarcely thought of him. The light was failing fast, and she knew that
it would soon be quite dark, save for a white streak of moon overhead.
It was still frightfully hot. The atmosphere oppressed her like a leaden
weight. It seemed to keep her back, and she battled with it as with
something tangible. Her feet were clad in thin slippers, and at any
other time she would have known that the rough stones cut and hurt her.
But in the terror of the moment she felt no pain. She only had the sense
to run straight on, with gasping breath and failing limbs, till at last,
quite suddenly, her strength gave out and she sank, an exhausted,
sobbing heap, upon the roadway.
There came the tread of a horse's hoofs, and she started and made a
convulsive effort to crawl to one side. She was nearer fainting than she
had ever been in her life.
Then the hoof-beats stopped, and she uttered a gasping cry, all her
nameless terror for the moment renewed.
A man jumped to the ground and, with a word to his animal, stooped over
her. She shrank from him in unreasoning panic.
"Who is it? Who is it?" she sobbed. He answered her instantly, rather
curtly.
"I--Baring. What's the matter? Something gone wrong?"
She felt strong hands lifting her, and she yielded herself to them, her
panic quenched.
"Oh, Major Baring!" she said faintly. "I didn't know you!"
Major Baring made no response. He held her on her feet facing him, for
she seemed unable to stand, and waited for her to recover herself. She
trembled violently between his hands, but she made a resolute effort
after self-control.
"I--I didn't know you," she faltered again.
"What's the matter?" asked Major Baring.
But she could not tell him. Already the suspicion that she had behaved
unreasonably was beginning to take possession of her. Yet--yet--Hyde
must have seen she was alarmed. He might have reassured her. She
recalled the look in his eyes, and shuddered. She was sure he had been
drinking. She had heard someone say that he did drink.
"I--I have had a fright," she said at last. "It was very foolish of me,
of course. Very likely it was a false alarm. Anyhow, I am better now.
Thank you."
He let her go, but she was still so shaken that she tottered and
clutched his arm.
"Really I am all right," she assured him tremulously. "It is
only--only--"
He put his arm around her without comment; and again she yielded as a
child might have yielded to the comfort of his support.
After some seconds he spoke, and she fancied his voice sounded rather
grim.
"I am going your way," he said. "I will walk back with you."
Hope was crying to herself in the darkness, but she hoped he did not
notice.
"I think I shall go and meet Ronnie," she said. "I don't want to go
back. It--it's so lonely."
"I will come in with you," he returned.
"Oh, no!" she said quickly. "No! I mean--I mean--I don't want you to
trouble any more about me. Indeed, I shall be all right."
He received the assurance in silence; and she began to wonder dolefully
if she had offended him. Then, with abrupt kindliness, he set her mind
at rest.
"Dry your eyes," he said, "and leave off crying, like a good child!
Ronnie's at the club, and won't be home at present. I didn't know you
were all alone, or I would have brought him along with me. That's
better. Now, shall we make a move?"
He slung his horse's bridle on his arm and, still supporting her with
the other, began to walk down the stony road. Hope made no further
protest. She had always considered Ronnie's major a rather formidable
person. She knew that Ronnie stood in awe of him, though she had always
found him kind.
They had not gone five yards when he stopped.
"You are limping. What is it?"
She murmured something about the stones.
"You had better ride," he decided briefly. "Rupert will carry you like a
lamb. Ready? How's that?"
He lifted her up into the saddle as if she had been a child, and stooped
to arrange her foot in the strap of the stirrup.
"Good heavens!" she heard him murmur, as he touched her shoe. "No wonder
the stones seemed hard! Quite comfortable?" he asked her, as he
straightened himself.
"Quite," she answered meekly.
And he marched on, leading the horse with care.
At the gate of the shadowy little compound that surrounded the bungalow
she had quitted so precipitately he paused.
"I will leave the animal here," he said, holding up his hands to her.
She slipped into them submissively.
The cry of a jackal somewhere beyond the native village made her start
and tremble. Her nerves were still on edge.
Major Baring slipped the bridle over the gate-post and took her hand in
his. The grip of his fingers was very strong and reassuring.
"Come," he said kindly, "let us go and look for this bogey of yours!"
But at this point Hope realized fully that she had made herself
ridiculous, and that for the sake of her future self-respect she must by
some means restrain him from putting his purpose into execution. She
stood still and faced him.
"Major Baring," she said, her voice quivering in spite of her utmost
effort, "I want you--please--not to come any farther. I know I have been
very foolish. I am sure of it now. And--please--do you mind going away,
and not thinking any more about it?"
"Yes, I do," said Major Baring.
He spoke with unmistakable decision, and the girl's heart sank.
"Listen!" he said quietly. "Like you, I think you have probably been
unnecessarily alarmed. But, even so, I am coming with you to satisfy
myself. Or--if you prefer--I will go alone, and you can wait for me
here."
"Oh, no!" said Hope quickly. "If--if you must go, I'll come, too. But
first, will you promise--whatever happens--not to--to laugh at me?"
Baring made an abrupt movement that she was at a loss to interpret. It
was too dark for her to see his face with any distinctness.
"Very well," he said. "Yes; I promise that."
Hope was still almost crying. She felt horribly ashamed. With her hand
in his, she went beside him up the short drive to the bungalow. And, as
she went, she vehemently wished that the earth would open and swallow
her up.