"Ha, ha!" laughed the colonel. "So many of these young fellows--and old ones too--are always full of reasons of that kind. A stone slipped from under their foot, or the _shikari_ sneezed, or something. There is something I rather like about that man. Who is he? Do you know anything about him?"

This was shooting the bolt home with a vengeance. But Vivien's self-possession was equal to the strain.

"Isn't there a family of that name in Brackenshire?" she asked carelessly.

"I believe there is. Yes, very likely. I thought we might ask him to come and stay a week or so when he has done with the Upwards, or even before. What do you think about it, Vivien?"

"Wouldn't he find it desperately slow here, Uncle Edward?" she said, as serenely as before.

"Perhaps; I don't know. If he did, he could always take himself off again. And now, if you'll excuse me, dear, I'll do likewise, for that confounded Levy sowar will be here directly for the _dak_, and I've got a whole pile of letters to write. It's mail day, too."

Left to herself, Vivien moved about the room arranging here, dusting a little there. No flowers were obtainable in this arid region of rocks, save a few wild ones, but even of these she had made the best; and what with little touches of feminine tastefulness in the arrangement of the rooms, the old forest bungalow, rough and racketty, and hardly better than a mere rest-house, stood quite transformed. Then, pa.s.sing into her own room, she shut the door, and sat down to think.

Far away from wild, craggy Baluchistan her thoughts went back. A chance call, a chance introduction in a room full of people. A few minutes of ordinary conversation as between strangers who met for the first time, and--she had learned the mystery of life when life is young--though not always then--had gazed within the golden gates of love; had trodden the flower-springing sod of that radiant and mystic realm; and not only that, but she had known, with a wondrous magnetic instinct, that in the same moment of time another had learned that mystery too. Then she had begun to live; then she had begun to realise what life could contain.

Other scenes rose before her as she sat here thinking--a vision of the Park corner, in all the joyous glow and brilliancy of the London season at its height--with one ever at her side--one who there in the midst of all the varied types of beauty, and style and attractiveness of the kingdom collected together, never--as she used to tell him half playfully, but all proudly--never had eyes for any but herself. Ah, it was something to be loved like that; and yet this was not the perfervid enthusiasm, the red-hot glow of youthful adoration, but the love of one considerably past that illusive stage; whose experiences had been multifold, and frequently bitter. Again, she saw the green glories of the Cliveden woods, mirrored in the broad placid surface, as she and one other floated down that loveliest of lovely reaches in the fire-path of the westering sunlight, alone together, the murmur of their voices and the dipped wing of the hovering swallow blending with the lazy splash of the sculls. Again, in the opera box, while the most splendid staging perhaps that "Faust" had ever been put on with, held the entranced and densely packed mult.i.tude in the lowered light, _she_ dwelt in a paradise all her own, for had she not the presence, even the contact of that one?

Many and many a scene came before her now. Ah, that year! It had been indeed a year of love. And in every such scene, in every such recollection he had been ever the same. Never a moment of time that he could spare but had been spent with her--indeed not a few also that he could not--and throughout it all how perfectly free and happy together, how thoroughly at home with each other they had been.

Why, then, had such a state of things been allowed to come to a close?

Heavens! It is a rare--well nigh unique--one, in all conscience. Had he deceived her--disappointed her? Not any. But there had come stalking along that goggle-eyed, sheet-and-turnip bogey hight Duty--that Juggernaut which has crushed far more lives than it has ever fortified, and now, in her retrospect, Vivien Wymer realised, not for the first time, and no less bitterly, that this is just what it had done for hers.

For at the period to which her thoughts went back, she owned a mother-- and a selfish one, as mothers now and again are, all cant to the contrary notwithstanding--and this devoted parent could not do without her daughter, although she had another. Here was the jagged rock beneath the surface of their unruffled sea, and upon it their freight of happiness had been wrecked and cast away.

At the time Vivien had thought herself pa.s.sing strong, and the consciousness of this had done much to buoy her up amid such an experience of agony and heartbreak that even now she hardly cares to look back to. That had been five years ago. She was young then, and now that she is nearer thirty than twenty she is able to realise that she acted insanely; is able to realise that the love which that one had lavished upon her was worth more than that of all the kindred in the world ten times over, let alone such a consideration as an imaginary duty towards a thoroughly selfish and exacting woman, merely because the latter happened to be her nearest relation. She has come to realise the absolute truth of his words, and the realisation brings with it no solace, for, like most other experiences worth gaining, it has come too late. Her mother has been dead for three years past, and her younger sister, now married, is not eager to see too much of her; and to Duty, as represented by these, Vivien has sacrificed her life.

But he--will he not relent and return? Can he live without her? Well, five years have pa.s.sed since they parted, and he has kept to their agreement. She knows his nature--unswerving, vindictive--indeed the very contrast afforded between this and the completeness of his love for herself had not a little to do with drawing her to him. His words during that awful parting had been few, and their raging bitterness to some degree suppressed, and that he should come second to anything or anybody, was what he never could and never would forgive.

Would he relent? Never. She went back to their chance meeting in the markhor cave but a few hours ago, recalled every word of their conversation. The very tone of his voice had never swerved. Her ear, quick to detect any change, had detected none--not even by the smallest inflection. His manner had been kind, friendly, full of a certain modic.u.m of regard--but that was all. Had he not often told her that a lost illusion was gone for ever? Never could it be set up again. His love was dead, and she had killed it.

But--was it? Surely not. It was only sleeping, deeply perhaps, but would re-awaken. She would re-awaken it. It was impossible that such a love as theirs had been could die in either of them as long as life should last. Then a blank misgiving seized her. They had not met for five years. Then she was twenty-three. What changes had the intervening period effected in her?

She gazed into her mirror long and steadily. Yes, she was growing old-- old and plain, decidedly, she told herself with an aching bitterness of heart. The soft sprightliness of five years earlier was no longer in her face. It had gone. Alone with herself she need not dissimulate.

In those days the bright and sunny spirits of rejoicing youth had radiated from her eyes; now, though her eyes were as l.u.s.trous and brilliant as ever, their glance was a tired one, reflecting but the sadness of a lonely and disappointed woman. Undoubtedly the change had struck him, and with startling force. No; his love would never re-awaken now. Why should it? In the day of her power she had let it go; now her power had departed.

Then another thought came to her. That blue-eyed girl staying with the Upwards--she was wondrously pretty. Vivien had seen her once in Shalalai. The two would be thrown together day after day, and all day long--had been so thrown together. They had even shared a common peril.

And she had youth on her side. What sort of tone would his voice have taken while talking to her, Vivien wondered, again recalling the perfect composure of his conversation but an hour or two ago in the cave. No reference--not even a veiled one--to the past; no remark upon the unexpectedness of their first meeting. True, he had seemed a trifle disconcerted on the occasion of that meeting; but that was only natural--and momentary. Yes, Nesta Cheriton was wonderfully pretty and taking. Thus she tortured herself.

But while she could do that alone and with her own thoughts, Vivien would rather have died than have allowed any glimmering of their gist to be so much as suspected by any living soul, let alone the object of them. She forgot to wonder at her own self-possession on the occasion of that first meeting; and indeed on that of the subsequent one. It had proved even more complete than his own, and she forgot to speculate as to whether he might not be taking his cue from her and playing up to her lead. That is the worst of introspection of the vehement kind, it is absolutely blinding as regards the att.i.tude towards the object which inspires it.

Then, by a curious twist in her meditations, pride sprang into arms. If one man could so completely dismiss her from his heart and memory, there were others who could not. She unlocked a drawer of her writing-table and took out a letter. Spreading it open before her, she glanced through it. It was from one who was the owner of a fine old country place and a good many thousands a year, and contained a pa.s.sionate appeal to her to reconsider her former refusals. This letter she had intended to answer last week. But now?

She read it through again. Why should she continue to throw away life, grieving over what was past and done with; what was inevitable; what was dead and buried? It was more sensible to take life as it is, and make the best of things. She would accept the man. There was no reason why she should not, and every reason why she should.

She drew a sheet of paper to her, but before she had got further than the address, a new thought struck her. What if she had so replied by last mail--that is to say, the day before this other had been so unexpectedly thrown back into her life? Nay, worse. What if she had so replied to a like appeal from the same quarter nearly a year ago? That decided her. She wrote her reply--and it was in the negative, very unequivocally so--stamped and directed it, and threw it aside.

Then she did a strange--and in view of her former meditations--an utterly inconsequent thing. She took another sheet of paper and wrote:

"We were to be strangers to each other. Had we not better remain so?

You will understand my meaning fully within the next few days. Of course I have no right to try and influence your movements, so must leave it to your own judgment to order them in what seems to me the only rational and sensible way.

"Vivien."

This she put into an envelope, which she sealed, but did not stamp.

Then she directed it to "Howard Campian, Esquire, Chirria Bach."

No; she could not bear it. To be under the same roof with him for days, possibly weeks at a time, and keep up the _role_ of strangers to each other, would be too great a strain. Now, when he should receive her uncle's invitation he would know what to do. On the face of such an intimation there was but one course open to him. A rap came at the door, and her uncle's voice:

"Got any letters to send, Viv? The Levy sowar is here."

"Only one," she answered, opening the door, and handing him the one bearing the English address. "The other I want to go in the opposite direction. The man can take it this evening when he pa.s.ses here with the Upwards' _dak_."

"All right." And in a moment more the clatter of the horse's hoofs died away down the path, and the swarthy Baluchi, in his Khaki uniform, jogged indifferently upon his way, as though he were not the bearer of that which by a turn or freak of thought had just escaped being an agency for entailing solemn consequences upon one or more lives.

"By George! this hill air seems to suit you, child," cried the jolly colonel, gazing upon his niece with undisguised admiration. "I can't make out what all these young fellows--young fools, I call them--are about. Eh?"

"Have I not got a dear old uncle, who talks shocking nonsense on privileged occasions?" returned Vivien, slipping her hand within his arm. "Why, I am getting as old as the hills, and am 'going off'

perceptibly every hour. Do I not own a looking-gla.s.s?"

"A looking-gla.s.s? Pooh! it's a lying one then. We'll pitch it over the _khud_, and send Der' Ali down to the bazaar for one that is more truthful. But, then--I am forgetting. This isn't Baghnagar, and there's no bazaar."

"No, there isn't, and a good thing too, if it is going to conduce to such scandalous waste," retorted Vivien brightly.

"I believe it's not fair, eh? It seems hard lines on you, child, shutting you up here, with no one to talk to but a prosy old fellow like me, eh?"

"Now, Uncle Edward, it is you who will have to go over that _khud_ instead of my poor, unoffending, candid looking-gla.s.s, if you persist in talking such a prodigious quant.i.ty of nonsense."

That evening the Levy sowar arrived in due course, with Colonel Jermyn's post, and clattered off, bearing that of Upward. But the letter addressed to Howard Campian, at Chirria Bach, still lay upon Vivien's writing-table.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

UMAR KHAN--FREEBOOTER.

Umar Khan was a Baluchi who bore a very bad record indeed.

One of his earlier exploits, in fact, that which was destined to start him in his career of _budmashi_, and ultimately, in all probability, land him on the scaffold and f.a.ggot pyre [Note 1], had taken place many years before the events narrated in our story. He had been summoned before the Political Agent to answer for complicity--real or alleged--in the raiding upon and blackmailing of certain wandering herdsmen, belonging to a weaker clan. The British official found him guilty, and sentenced him to a term of imprisonment, a terrible punishment to the free, wild man of the deserts and mountains.

The manner in which this one received the penalty to which he was doomed was characteristic. His eyes blazed, and, his features working with demoniacal fury, he spat forth a volume of curses and threats.

"What does he say?" inquired the Political Agent.

The interpreter replied that, apart from calling down all the most forcible anathemas known to the Moslem creed upon the heads of those concerned in his then discomfiture, the substance of the prisoner's declaration was as follows:--The _Sirkar_ [Ruling power, _i.e._, Government] was strong, but those who had borne witness against him were not. Let them beware. He would have ten lives for that day's work.

The _Sirkar_ could not shut him up for ever. It could kill him, but there were plenty left--several, even, who heard him that day--who would accept his legacy of vengeance; and the witnesses against him had better go across the wide sea, if haply they might, for no corner of the land wherein they now dwelt was remote enough to hide them from the vengeance of Umar Khan.

To this manifesto the Political Agent replied in words of weighty warning. As the prisoner had said, the _Sirkar_ was strong--strong to punish, as he had already discovered. If, on the expiration of his term of imprisonment he continued his evil ways, or made any attempt to fulfil his threat, he would speedily find that there was no corner of the land remote enough to hide him from the vengeance of the _Sirkar_, which in that case would be swift, condign, and terrible--in fact the most terrible that could overtake him, viz: death with ignominy.

So Umar Khan duly served his term, and in the fulness of time was released. For a while the authorities kept an eye on him, and all went well. He was in no hurry, this wild, brooding, vindictive mountaineer.

He employed his period of enforced quietude in secretly locating every one of those who had borne witness against him, and when the surveillance over his movements had relaxed, he became as good as his word. One night he started for some of the objects of his feud, and, taking them by surprise, killed three. Two more he found in a neighbouring village, and these also felt the weight of his _tulwar_.

But now things grew too lively. With half of his account of vengeance settled, Umar Khan found himself forced to flee, unless he were prepared to forego--and that forever--the other half. So flee he did, both fast and far, hotly pursued by the Political Agent and a strong posse of Levy sowars.