The Sirdar's Oath Part 23

"Ah, I forgot. Heaven help me, I forgot," she cried.

"Do you think, in any case, I would have agreed to save my precious skin at the price of leaving you in their power? Why, Hilda, I wonder you thought me worth stirring a finger for, at all."

She looked at him, long and earnestly and hopelessly, as though to photograph his image in her brain. How ill he looked, pale and haggard, and hollow cheeked. It was not much of a time for thinking of appearances, but he felt thankful that the advantages of the Mahomedan injunctions of cleanliness had been extended to him--a prisoner.

"Sweetheart, G.o.d bless you for coming to me at the last," he went on.

"It was grand--intrepid. Tell me, Hilda. You have known all the time that I loved you?"

"Yes, I knew," she answered chokingly. Then, with forced gaiety, "You did not on the voyage, though."

"Was I not a born fool? Oh, my darling, what happiness might have been ours. What might not our lives have been but for this?"

A thought of Cynthia Daintree crossed her mind, of Cynthia Daintree amusing herself at Mazaran, while claiming this man's bond. An impulse came upon her to ask about that affair, but she forebore. Nothing of a disturbing nature must come between them now. And time was so short, so precious.

Then for a short sacred half hour they talked--and their words, uttered on the brink of the grave of one of them, were so deep, so sacred as not to bear intrusion. And then Shere Dil Khan's voice was heard outside, proclaiming that the time had come for the interview to end.

"We have found our happiness only to lose it," whispered Raynier. "But that is better than never having known it. Is it not?"

"Yes, yes--a thousand times. G.o.d bless you, O my love, my love!"

To the end of her life Hilda will never know how she tore herself from the last close embrace. And Heaven was deaf to the cry of her widowed soul, deaf as the polite but impa.s.sive Oriental who conducted her forth from that chamber of heartbreak and despair.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

DE TALIONE.

"There _is_ grat.i.tude left in the world."

Herbert Raynier was lying in the damp and pitchy gloom of his dungeon, sleeping as soundly and as peacefully as though he were not to be led forth and beheaded with the rising of the morrow's sun. That last interview had calmed and soothed him, and now his slumbers were bright-- for he was amid beautiful scenes, far away, and Hilda was beside him.

Then he started up--and with the first flash of awaking consciousness came the thought that the time had come, and the hand that had dropped on his shoulder in the darkness was that which should lead him forth to his doom.

"There _is_ grat.i.tude left in the world."

The words were uttered softly, and--in good English. Was he dreaming?

But immediately a shaded light rendered things visible. Hands were busy about his shackles, and lo! they fettered his ankles no more.

"I have come to save you, brother," went on the whispered voice. "If you obey me implicitly you will be free immediately. Put on these, and until I give leave, do not speak so much as one little word."

Raynier obeyed him in both particulars. In a moment or two he was arrayed in the white loose garments and turban of the border tribes.

For the other injunction, he whispered but one name,--

"Shere Dil Khan?"

"Yes. Now--silence." Following his guide, to Raynier it seemed they were traversing endless and labyrinthine pa.s.sages. With something of a shudder he recognised that horrible door through which he had pa.s.sed during those acute moments of living death, then the Sirdar opened another door, and the cool free air of the desert, blowing upon them, told that they were outside the walls.

Still preserving the most rigid silence, they held on, downward, by a steep path. Turning his head, Raynier could make out the loom of the great mountain ma.s.s against the stars, and was conjecturing on the ease and absence of obstacle which had characterised his deliverance at the hands of the Nawab's son, for not a soul did they encounter, no guard challenged them; and it occurred to him that, in the strength of his fetters, his safe keeping had lain, wherefore no watch was placed over him; and this was the real meaning of it.

For about half an hour they had been walking swiftly and in silence, when Shere Dil Khan stopped. Before them was a rude herdsman's shelter, and from within came a sound.

They entered this, and, was it imagination? but Raynier thought to perceive a human figure dart out at the other end. But here stood two horses, saddled and bridled.

"Mount," said Shere Dil Khan, breaking the silence. And he thrust a rifle into the other's hand. "It is a Lee-Metford, and the magazine is fully loaded, but here are other cartridges."

"You might well have thought that grat.i.tude was dead in the world, my brother," resumed the Sirdar, as they rode on through the night. "But had I shown any recognition of you then, you would not be here now, for, the Nawab's suspicions once aroused, you would have been strongly guarded. Even to the lady I dared not give the slightest encouragement to hope."

"I misjudged you, brother, forgive me. But would not the Nawab have reckoned what I was able to do for you as a set-off against what my father is supposed to have done."

"He would not, for he had sworn, and an oath is binding. Now that you have escaped he will not be sorry, when he learns how you saved me from the murderous rabble in your country. But, brother, get your Government to remove you from this border, because now it is the duty of every Gularzai to take your life."

Raynier thought that his Government would not require much "getting"

under all the circ.u.mstances, and perhaps it was as well.

"But you, brother? Will not you have to suffer for this?"

"No. My father will be displeased, but although he would not have spared you, at heart he will be glad you have escaped, having saved the life of his son."

It had been midnight when they started. Towards daybreak they paused to rest their horses, then on again.

"Yonder is she who would have redeemed you, brother," said Shere Dil Khan.

In front were discernible two mounted figures. Raynier's heart leaped, and he well-nigh blessed his peril, by reason of that which it had drawn forth. But the meeting between the two was subdued, for there were others present Shere Dil Khan and the Baluchi were deep in earnest conference.

"Farewell now, brother," said the former. "I can go no further. Allah be with ye! I think the way is open, yet do not delay, and avoid others if possible." And with a farewell handclasp the Sirdar turned his horse and cantered swiftly away.

Twice they sighted parties of Gularzai, but these were distant and unmounted, moreover, they themselves being in native attire attracted no attention. The sun rose over the chaos of jagged peaks, and to those wanderers it seemed that he never rose upon a fairer and brighter world--yet they were in a desert of arid plain, and cliff, and hump-like hills streaked white with gypsum. Mehrab Khan thought that by swift travelling they might reach Mazaran by the middle of the next night.

All seemed fair and promising.

On the right front rose a great mountain range, broken and rugged, and now they were crossing a long narrow plain. Then, at the end of this they became aware of something moving.

"Hors.e.m.e.n--and Gularzai," p.r.o.nounced Mehrab Khan.

Were they pursued? was the first thought of his hearers. For they made out that this was a party four or five dozen strong perhaps. Yet, why should they attract the attention of these any more than of other groups they had pa.s.sed? They forgot one thing. Hilda, though in native costume, was riding European fashion, side saddle.

Further scrutiny did not tend to rea.s.sure. The hors.e.m.e.n were heading in their direction, and riding rapidly. It began to wear an ugly look of pursuit. This might prove to be a stray wandering band, but even that did not seem to mend matters.

Raynier and Mehrab Khan held rapid consultation. It would look less suspicious to ride on if they had been seen, they decided, and there was nowhere to hide, if they had not. But soon a glimpse behind placed the question beyond all doubt. The distance between themselves and the hors.e.m.e.n had diminished perceptibly. The latter, strung out over the plain, were coming for them at a gallop.

As they put their steeds to a corresponding pace, it seemed to Raynier that all he had gone through was as nothing to that moment. They would be captured, for, bearing in mind the pace at which they had hitherto travelled, their steeds were urgently in need of a blow. Just as they had reckoned on having gained safety at last, and now--all was lost.

On, on, swept this wild chase, and now the pursuers were near enough to shout to them to halt Hilda's steed was beginning to show signs of giving in. Then its rider uttered breathlessly,--

"Herbert, I see a chance. That bend of rock just ahead. Beyond it--the _tangi_--the Syyed's _tangi_."

"A chance, indeed," he answered, all athrill at the discovery. "The only thing is will they fight shy of it now, as they did in cold blood?"

"They will--they will," she panted.