The Ruby Sword Part 10

"For exactly the reason I then foretold. You seem better employed. I amuse myself watching the fun instead."

She looked at him quickly. Was he jealous? Nesta Cheriton was so accustomed to be spoiled and adored and competed for and quarrelled over by the stronger s.e.x, that she could hardly realise any member of the same remaining indifferent to her charms. As a matter of fact, this one was not indifferent. He appreciated them. Her blue-eyed, golden-haired prettiness was pleasant to behold, in the close, daily intercourse of camp life. He liked to notice her pretty ways, and there was something rather alluring in her half affectionate and wholly confidential manner towards himself. But--jealous? Oh no--no. He had lived too long, and had too much experience of life for that phase of weakness. Nesta was disappointed. She read no symptoms of the same in his face, her ear detected no trace of bitterness or resentment in the tone.

"But I want to go out with you sometimes," she said. "Why do you avoid me so of late?"

"My dear child, you never made a greater mistake in your life than in thinking that. Here we are, you see, all crowded up together. We can't all be talking at once--and--I thought you rather enjoyed the fun of playing those two Johnnies off against each other."

"Ah, I'm sick of them. I wish they'd go back to Shalalai."

"I don't altogether believe that. Which is the favoured one, by the way?"

"No, really. I rather like Captain Fleming, though." She laughed, branching off with the light-hearted inconsequence of her type. "And--I don't know what to do. He's awfully gone on me."

"And are you 'awfully gone' on him?"

"Of course not. But I rather like him. I don't know what to do about it."

"You don't know whether to buckle yourself for life to some one you 'rather like'--or not. Is that the long and short of it?"

"Yes."

"If you are a little idiot, Nessie, you will do it--if you are not, you won't. You are dreadfully lacking in ballast, my child, even to dream of such a thing, are you not?"

"I suppose so. I don't care a straw for anybody for more than a week or so. Then I am just as sick of them as I can be. That's how I am."

"Except on that solitary occasion when you did take someone seriously.

Tell me about that, Nessita."

"No--no!"

"But you promised to, one of these days. Why not now?"

"What a tease you are. I won't tell it you now. No--nor ever.

There!--Hark! Wasn't that thunder?" she broke off suddenly.

"Yes. It's a long way off, though, travelling down yonder ridge. Won't come near us."

Away along the summit of the further range a compact ma.s.s of cloud now rested, and from this came a low distant peal. It represented one of the thunderstorms common at that time of year, restricted in locality, and of limited area. They gave it no further thought, and the conversation running on from one subject to another, now grave, now gay, carried them a long way over the road. The rest of the party were far ahead. Bracebrydge was consoling himself by teasing Lily, and receiving from that young person, not unaided by Hazel, many a repartee fully up to the viciousness of his own thrusts. Fleming was riding with Mrs Upward, while Upward and Bhallu Khan were constantly diverging from the road, inspecting various botanical subjects with professional eye. Thus Nesta and Campian, whether by accident or design of the former, gradually dropped behind. Again, a long low boom of thunder pealed out upon the stillness of the air.

"That's much nearer?" exclaimed the girl, looking up. "I say! I wish it wouldn't! I don't like thunder."

"Scared of it?"

"Rather. What shall we do if it comes right over?"

"There may be some shelter of sorts further on. Meanwhile, don't think about it. Go on talking to me. What subject shall we find to wrangle about?"

She laughed, and very soon found a subject; and thus they continued their way, until the path opened out from the narrow, stony, juniper-grown valley they had been descending, on to a wide, open plain, utterly dest.i.tute of foliage of any kind. The bulk of the party were now visible again, further in advance, looking mere specks, nearly three miles distant.

"They will be in the _tangi_ directly," said Nesta, shading her eyes to watch the distant figures. "There, they are in it now," as the latter disappeared in what looked like the mountain side itself, for no rift was discernible from where these two now rode.

"We had better get on, hadn't we?" urged Campian.

"Oh no. I hate hurrying, and there's no earthly reason why we should."

So they held on at the same foot's pace over the plain, which stretched its weary desolation far on either side of them. Here and there a great hump of earth, streaked with white gypsum, relieved the dead level monotony, but not a living thing--man, beast or bird--was in sight. Not even a sound was audible, except the deep-toned growl of the thunder, growing louder as they neared the mountain wall.

"Good study for a subject ill.u.s.trating the jaws of Death," remarked Campian, as, now before them, the mountain seemed to yawn apart in a vertical fissure, which the stupendous height of the cliffs on either hand caused to appear as a mere slit.

"Yes. And--it's beginning to rain."

Large drops were pattering down as they entered the jaws of the great chasm, but once within them there was shelter for a s.p.a.ce, for the cliffs took an abrupt slant over at about a hundred feet above, so that the sky was no longer visible. A trickle of muddy water was already running down the stony footway. This should have warned Campian, at any rate; but then his experience of the country and this particular feature thereof, was not large. Nesta s.h.i.+vered.

"I don't like this at all," she said. "It is horrible. What if the _tangi_ should come down?"

The other glanced upward. The cliff walls were smooth and straight.

Not a sign of ledge or projection to afford a foothold, no clinging shrub or tree anch.o.r.ed in a cleft.

"Shall we go back?" he said. "There must be some way over."

"No, no. I came through here once before, and I remember Mr Upward saying it would take a whole day to cross over the mountain. The _tangi_ is only about a mile long."

"That means twenty minutes riding slow. Come along. We shall soon do it."

But, even as his tone was, an ugly picture came before the speaker's mind--that of a rush of black water many feet high, syphoned between those smooth walls. Anxiously but furtively his glance scanned them as they rode along.

As the narrowness of the pa.s.sage wound and widened a little, the sky once more became visible overhead. The sky? But it had clouded over, and the rain fell somewhat smartly now upon the two wayfarers. A blue gleam of lightning shot down into the depths, and the reverberating peal which followed was as though telephoned in menacing boom through this tube-like chasm. Hundreds and hundreds of feet they towered up now, those iron-bound walls. It was like penetrating deeper and deeper into the black heart of the mountain.

"See that place up there?" said Nesta, pointing to a kind of slanting ledge quite twenty feet above and which might be reached by a strong climber, though even then with difficulty. "Last time we came through here, Bhallu Khan told us that two men had been overtaken by a rush, and succeeded in getting to that point; but even there the water had reached one of them and swept him away. Horrible, isn't it?"

"Very likely he invented the whole thing. He has an excellent imagination, has our friend Bhallu Khan."

This he said to rea.s.sure her, not that he thought the incident improbable. Indeed, glancing up at the spot indicated, he saw that evidence in the shape of sticks and straws was not wanting to show that the water had at some time reached that alt.i.tude, and the idea was not pleasant. In the vivid suns.h.i.+ne of a cloudless day it would have added interest to their way; now, with a gathering storm breaking over their heads, and another half mile of what might at any moment become a raging death-trap before them, it was dismal.

Another turn of the chasm, and the way, which had hitherto been level and pebbly, now led up over steep and slippery slabs. It became necessary to dismount, and here--Nesta's pony which she was leading, for it became necessary to adopt single file, slipped and fell badly on its side. By the time the terrified beast was on its legs again, s.h.i.+vering and snorting, and sufficiently soothed down to resume the way, some precious minutes had been lost.

"We might mount again now," said Campian, noting that the way was smoother. "Come. Jump up."

But instead of placing her foot in the hand held ready to receive it, the girl stood as though turned to stone. Every drop of blood had forsaken her face, which was now white as that of a marble statue, her lips ashy and quivering.

"Hark!" she breathed, rather than uttered. "It is coming! We are lost!"

His own countenance changed, too. He had heard it as soon as herself-- that dull raving roar, echoing with hollow metallic vibration along the rock walls. His heart almost died within him before the awfulness of this peril.

"Oh no, nothing like that," he replied. "We must race it. We shall distance it yet, if we only keep our heads."

The while he had put her into the saddle. Then taking the bridle, he began to lead her pony over the dangerous point of the way. The brute slipped and stumbled, now sliding, now about to pitch headlong, but both got through.