The Native Born; or, the Rajah's People Part 54

"Who is it?" Mrs. Carmichael whispered.

"I--Lois," was the answer. The new-comer crept down by Beatrice's side and leaned her head against the warm shoulder. "I am so tired," she said faintly. "I have been with Archibald. He has been moaning so. Mr.

Berry says he is afraid mortification has set in. It is terrible."

"Poor little woman!" Beatrice put her arm about the slender figure and drew her closer. "Lay your head on my lap and sleep a little. You can do no good just now."

"Thank you. I will, if you don't mind. You will wake me if anything happens, won't you?"

"Yes, I promise." It gave Beatrice a sense of comfort to have Lois near her. Very gently she pa.s.sed her hand over the aching forehead, and presently Lois fell into a sleep of absolute exhaustion.

By mutual consent, Mrs. Carmichael and Beatrice ceased to talk, but when suddenly there was a movement close to them, and a dim light flashed over the part.i.tion, they exchanged a glance of meaning.

"That is my husband," Mrs. Carmichael whispered. "Something is going to happen. Listen!"

She was not wrong in her supposition. The Colonel had entered the next room, followed by Nicholson and Saunders, and had closed the door carefully after him. All three men carried lanterns. They glanced instinctively at the wooden part.i.tion which divided them from the four women, but Carmichael shook his head.

"It's all right," he said. "They must be fast asleep, poor souls.

Let's have a look at these fellows." He went over to a huddled-up figure lying in the shadow. The corner of a military cloak had been thrown over the face. He drew it on one side and then let it drop.

"Gone!" he said laconically. He pa.s.sed on to the next. There were in all three men ranged against the wall. Two of them were dead. "Martins told me they couldn't last," Colonel Carmichael muttered. "It is better for them. They are out of it a little sooner, that's all." The third man was Travers. He lay on his back, his face turned slightly toward the wall, his eyes closed. He seemed asleep. The Colonel nodded somberly. "Another ten hours," he calculated.

He came back to the table, where the others waited, and drew out a paper from his pocket.

"Give me your light a moment, Nicholson," he said.

No one spoke while he examined the list before him. All around them was a curious hush--a new thing in their struggle, and one that seemed surcharged with calamity. After a moment Colonel Carmichael looked up.

He was many years the senior of his companions, but just then there seemed no difference in years between them. They were three wan, haggard men, weakened with hunger, exhausted with sleepless watching.

That week had killed the youth in two of them.

"Geoffries has just given me this," Carmichael said. "It is a list of our provisions. We have enough food, but there is no fresh water. The enemy has cut off the supply. We could not expect them to do otherwise." He waited, and then, as neither spoke, he went on: "I have spoken with the others. You know, gentlemen, we can not go on another twenty-four hours without water. We have made a good fight for it, but this is the end. We must look the fact in the face."

"Surely they must know at headquarters what a state we are in--"

Saunders began.

The Colonel shrugged his shoulders.

"No doubt they know, but they can not help in time. This is not a petty frontier business. It is something worse--a rising with a leader.

A rising with a leader is a lengthy business to tackle, and it requires its victims. In this case we are the victims." He smiled grimly. "We have only one thing left to do--make a dash for it while we have the strength. You must know as well as I do that there is scarcely anything worth calling a hope, but it's a more agreeable way of dying than being starved out like rats and then butchered like sheep. I know these devils." He glanced around the shadowy room with a curious light in his eyes. "My best friend was murdered in this room,"

he added. "Personally, I prefer a fair fight in the open."

"When do you propose to make the start, Colonel?" Nicholson asked.

"Within an hour. The night favors us. The women must be kept in the center as much as possible. I have given Geoffries special charge over them. They will be told at the last moment. There is no use in spoiling what little rest they have had." He drew out a pencil and began to scribble a despatch on the back of an old letter. "I advise you gentlemen to do likewise," he said. "Very often a piece of paper gets through where a man can not, and it is our bounden duty to supply the morning periodicals with as much news as possible."

For some minutes there was no sound save that of the pencils scrawling the last messages of men with the seal of death already stamped upon their foreheads. All three had forgotten Travers, and yet from the moment they had begun to speak he had been awake and listening. He sat up now, leaning upon his elbow.

"Nicholson!" he said faintly.

Nicholson turned and came to his side.

"Hullo!" he said. "Awake, are you? How are you?"

Travers made no immediate answer; he took Nicholson's hand in a feverish clasp and drew him nearer.

"I am in great pain," he said. "You don't need to pretend. I know. The fear of death has been on me all day. Just now I am not afraid. Is there no hope?"

"You mean--for us? None."

Travers nodded.

"I heard you talking, but I wanted to make sure. It has all been my fault--every bit of it. It's decent of you not to make me feel it more. You are not to blame--her. You know I tempted her, I made her help me. She isn't responsible. At any rate, she made a clean breast of it--that's something to her credit. I didn't want to--I never meant to. I am not the sort that repents. But this last week you have been so decent, and Lois such a plucky little soul--she ought to hate me--and perhaps she does--but she has done her best. Nicholson, are you listening? Can you hear what I say? It's so d.a.m.ned hard for me to talk."

"I can hear," Nicholson said kindly. "Don't worry about what can't be helped." In spite of everything, he pitied the man, and his tone showed it.

Travers lifted himself higher, clinging to the other's shoulder. His voice began to come in rough, uneven jerks.

"But it can be helped--it must be helped! Don't you see--I came between you and Lois purposely. From the first moment you spoke of her I knew that you loved her--and I wanted her. I never gave your message. I didn't dare. You are the sort of man a woman cares for--a woman like Lois. I couldn't risk it. But now--well, I'm done, and afterward she will be free--"

Nicholson drew back stiffly.

"You are talking nonsense," he said, in a colder tone. "No one wants you to die--and in any case, you know very well we have no chance of getting through this alive."

Travers seized his arm. His eyes shone with a painful excitement.

"Yes--yes!" he stammered. "You have a chance--a sure hope. I can save you; I can--atone. That's what I want. Only you must help me. I am a dying man. I want you to bring me to the Rajah--at once. Only five minutes with him--that will be enough. Then he will let you go--he must!"

Nicholson freed himself resolutely from the clinging hands.

"You exaggerate your power," he said, "and, besides, what you ask is an impossibility."

He turned away, but Travers caught his arm and held him with a frantic, desperate strength.

"Then if you will not help me--send Miss Cary to me," he pleaded. "I must speak to her."

Nicholson looked down into the dying face with a new interest. He had no suspicion of the burden with which Travers' soul was laden, and yet he was conscious now that the matter was urgent and of an importance which he could not estimate.

"I will tell her," he said. "Stay quiet a minute. We have no time to lose."

Travers nodded and fell back on to his rough couch. His eyes closed and he seemed to sleep, but as Beatrice knelt down by his side he roused himself and looked at her with the intensity of a man who has gathered his last strength for a last great purpose.

"I am dying," he whispered thickly; "I know it and I don't care. I am past caring. But before I die I want to atone; I want, if I can, to save Lois. I care for her in my poor way, and I would like her to be happy. Are you listening?"

"I am listening," Beatrice answered gravely. "Do you think I could close my ears when you speak of atonement?"

He clutched her hand.

"You would be glad to atone for all the mischief we have done?"

"I would give my life."