III.In the spring the natives grew restless."They're stretching themselves after a long sleep," said a young subaltern, knowingly."They're planning mutiny," said the Colonel to himself, and he ordered out a band of men for investigating the neighborhood.The little band was delayed seven hours over the extremest limit set for its return.When it came it bore a dead man back to the Station. The man had been a Briton and of the regiment.Then the grim spirit of the military station rose, as the gray, still sea rises at the onsweep of the gale.War had come.IV.For an hour the Colonel was closeted. There was a line of attack to be planned. He would talk it over with his older officers presently; for the time being he could think better alone. It was necessary not to be too hasty—to keep a controlling hand on the lever of this engine of war, of which he was in command. It was necessary to strike decisively, when he did strike, and to the heart of it. That was it—to the heart! The natives were on the move, the investigating band had reported.Whereto strike? A surveying officer; an engineer could judge. Who was the best man to send. It was like ordering a man into the mouth of death.The Colonel leaned his head in his hand and beat the end of his pen against the deal of the table. Coolness was wanted; knowledge of surveying; courage. That was it—courage!Only two faces rose before him and haunted him, to the exclusion of all others. Of the two, Trevelyan's was the most persistent.True, he was young and he was untried, and he was probably the most unpopular officer at the Station, but in his veins was the blood that endures and slays and conquers!Properly executed the fulfilling of the orders would mean his proved skill as an officer. If he failed—the Colonel laid down his pen. That blood could not fail.There was his unusual strength, too, to be taken in his favor, his strength and his endurance. He remembered that Trevelyan had stood intense heat better than any man at the Station; that he could live on less food, and had a nicer knowledge of horsemanship than any officer or trooper in his command; that technically he was brilliant at surveying. The majority of commanders would probably decide between the two in favor of Stewart, but the Colonel had run the gauntlet to success a good deal on instinct. The Colonel prided himself on instinct. It would be Trevelyan!Two hours later Trevelyan received his orders."Very well, sir," "I understand, sir," "Yes, sir," he had replied, and after he had left, the Colonel nodded and smiled grimly at the young engineer's self-control in the face of an order that might mean death.Trevelyan walked blindly back to his quarters. There was a queer singing in his head and beating at his temples. He stumbled across the threshold and he sat down on the edge of his bunk and pressed his hands hard against his temples to still that mad, incessant beating. His eyes remained wide and fixed at one spot on the floor.It had come at last; the test and the opportunity for which he had blindly, passionately prayed as a child; for which he had striven and worked as a boy; it had come and it had found him unprepared to meet it!He thought of the ride—alone, except for a trooper—and on the spot of the floor, he pictured the blackness and the danger, as a man brings forth a likeness on a dark plate. The picture came and went, and went and came again on the spot on the floor and he sprang up with a choked cry. To go out into that stillness and darkness; to face the blackness of death—They might get back his body—what good would his body do anyone—and they might get it home, but they probably wouldn't. The utter silence in that blackness of death—so great that her voice could never reach him!He put his foot over the possessed spot on the floor, and his leg shook as he did so. He saw his leg tremble, and he knew it and he did not care! He had turned coward, and—he did not care! What was courage when her voice could not reach him in the blackness of death? He might live through it, and she might care more for him, for it, but the chances were two-thirds for death.The man they had brought in that morning! What a ghastly sight he had been! The eyes had refused to remain closed and they had stared at him in all the horror of dead sightlessness. And the lips had been drawn back from the teeth and had stiffened so, in the agony of the death struggle. God! And they would bring him back like that—like that—like that!What vision did those staring eyes see but unutterable, unpenetrable blackness? What speech could that grinning mouth ever form again? What sound could pierce the seal laid on the hearing?They had told him that the trooper had a sweetheart waiting for him somewhere off in Ireland. Well, even love could not break the bonds of death, and make him speak and hear and caress her as of old.There was something mightier than love after all—mightier even than the love he had for Cary.And Trevelyan cowered, afraid.V.Mackenzie, the surgeon, lounging in a big wicker chair, his heels higher than his head, lazily rolled cigarettes and winked at the dazzling reflection of the sun on the walls of the barracks. Off in the distance he could see the little subaltern walking energetically down the road. The little subaltern was gotten up regardless in white linen. He was evidently on his way to drink tea with the Colonel's daughter."My eyes," said Mackenzie, aloud, "Will nothing interfere with his afternoon tea! The devil only knows if he'll be alive this time to-morrow. Better keep cool when he can. He's a blank little fool! Thinks Jessica Q will tumble when he says good-bye—does he? Tea and love-makingnow!" and the surgeon fanned himself with his hand. The surgeon had never taken kindly to the little subaltern.Suddenly his feet came down with a crash and he leaned forward in the wicker chair. Bennett had stopped the little subaltern and the little subaltern was talking back excitedly and kicking up the white dust, regardless of the fresh linen suit.Mackenzie rose and stretched himself."Wonder if the old man has issued orders? Something's up, sure as a gun, when that kid forgets Jessica Q and his clothes."Three of the mess who had been talking earnestly at the end of the piazza, turned at the sound of voices in the road and joined the two there."Not Trevelyan, you say? It isn't Trevelyan?" one of them was saying, as Mackenzie came up."Yes, it is, too! Jove! If I only had his chance," sighed the little subaltern, twirling around distractedly on one heel."There! There! That'll do, Baby," said Bennett, patting him on the head. The little subaltern squirmed, but he kept listening to what Bennett was saying."He's a rum comrade, but I imagine he can do it," said Bennett looking toward the barracks, thoughtfully, "He knows the fine points of surveying from A to Z, and—""—He's got more nerve than any chap I ever knew," put in Mackenzie."Is the old man going to send an escort with him? I bet if he does, it'll be Sandy McCann," said Pearson."What's this? What's this I hear about Robert being sent off to-night?"Young Stewart of the Engineers joined the group hastily. His uniform was covered with dust and he held his helmet under his arm, wiping the moisture from his face."Why, it's almost certain death. I—""That's why we're here—to face death, if we have to," said the little subaltern, with an odd new gravity, and Bennett suddenly stopped short in patting his head.Stewart turned."True," he said, briefly, running his right hand up and down the sleeve of his left arm "but—""And it probably won't be any worse than what we'll have to face to-morrow or next day," said Bennett, as Stewart paused. "He hasn't been sociable and over decent to us, but we'll call on him and wish him luck. Come along, boys!"The group laughed a little. "All right," they said.Stewart followed them up to Trevelyan's quarters.After all, why should he feel it so! It was Trevelyan's one chance to redeem himself with the regiment and turn the tide of popularity in his favor. Fate was not as cruel as she seemed. And Trevelyan bore a charmed life. And he knew Trevelyan could do it. Trevelyan would do it—well! Trevelyan might have failed in the shaping of the details of life this last year, but in the supreme hour—For Stewart remembered the climb down the turret tower and the mad scaling of the crags in Scotland, and the storm and the white fury of the waters near the American fort, and the desperate swim, and the child who had done these things because of what he would one day do as a man.The little subaltern banged on Trevelyan's door.VI.Trevelyan, still standing over the spot on the floor, raised his eyes and looked vaguely in the direction of the sound. He remained silent.The little subaltern banged again, and Trevelyan heard the echo of voices.He put his hand up to his collar, loosening it, and then he crossed the room and flung open the door."Hello, you fellows," he cried, "What d'you want of a chap now?"The little subaltern tumbled into the room, the other half dozen members of the mess on top of him."Hello, yourself," they cried, "How d'you like the job the Colonel's given you?""Like it!" Trevelyan threw back his head and his large, well formed throat pulsed as he spoke, "Why, it's the greatest thing that ever happened to a chap of my age!"His messmates formed a little group around him."How's your nerve?"Trevelyan laughed. It was only Stewart, who stood by silent, listening, who felt vaguely the jar in it."Oh,mynerve is all right. How's your own at the prospect of a row? 'I go to prepare a place for you'—" he went on in a deep chant."Robert!"It was Stewart."Oh, I suppose that was a bit in bad taste, but when a chap's making his last will and testament, he forgets the teachings of the old kirk—""Sure! What time do you start?" from the little subaltern."Fire arms in good order?" put in Bennett."In an hour. No, I'm not going to trust any of these oily natives to clean them. I'll see to them myself."Trevelyan moved away from the group."We'll have something on the strength of it!" said the little subaltern, "A toast: 'To the Queen—God bless her—and the Queen's courier!' How's that?"He glanced conceitedly about the room. The men of the mess laughed good naturedly."Well, here's my hand on the success of it," said Mackenzie, a little later, at leaving. He suddenly regretted he had not been a bit kinder to the young engineer. A fellow with such nerve, deserved more than they had all given him.They filed out after awhile. Stewart alone remained. He put his hand on Trevelyan's shoulder, as he had used to do long ago when they were boys, pacing the great library of a rainy afternoon, and he walked with Trevelyan up and down the length of the room."It's a risky business, Robert," he said, in his grave voice, "but I believe you're the man for it.""I suppose," said Trevelyan, "if it hadn't been me it would have been Pearson.""I suppose so, but Pearson couldn't do it.""Neither may I.""Youwill," said Stewart.After a little, he went on, speaking as though to himself."I wish to God—"He did not finish his sentence.Trevelyan shook off the hand on his shoulder."I understand, and—I'm grateful, of course, and all that, but if you'd leave me alone for awhile. There is a letter or two and—""Of course."At the door Stewart turned."I'll see you before you go," he said.Trevelyan listened until his footsteps, faded away and then he sat down at his small deal table, his eyes turned away from the spot on the floor. The vision of that dead, ghastly face had come back.If it wasn't him it would be Pearson, probably, or anyhow, some other man—glad of the chance. Why should he deprive him, whoever he was, of the chance? A grim smile crept around Trevelyan's mouth, and then he let his head fall forward against the edge of the wood; his arms hanging limp between his long legs stretched out straight under the table. The horrible fear had returned, and the darkness and the blackness of death seemed swallowing him up. Never to see her again! Never to touch her hand again, or to hear her footsteps in passing, or the sound of her voice; to die—not with other men in the daylight and in battle—but to be shot down like a dog, alone, in the darkness—The steady ticking of the watch he had laid in front of him on the table, throbbed feebly like a dying pulse, close to his ear, and he sat, his forehead against the edge of the table, his eyes staring down at the shadowed floor.After awhile he got up and steadied himself and went over to the door and flung it open and looked out. Far off, the little subaltern was coming his way. He hurried back to the other end of the room and got out his fire arms and examined them, and began to polish them vigorously. The little subaltern looked in."Hard at work? Do you want help?"Trevelyan looked up and nodded."No, I guess not," he said, pleasantly.The little subaltern sighed enviously, hesitated, and then passed on.Trevelyan drew a deep breath and laid down his polishing cloth and picked up his revolver. His hands played nervously over the trigger a moment. The catch seemed stiff. He tried it again.There was a sudden glare and a loud report, and Trevelyan sank back, the blood staining the shoulder of his uniform.After all, if one had nerve, it could be easily done and was soon over!He turned sharply and leaned against the table, facing the window, one hand to his shoulder. He fancied he heard footsteps receding. After awhile he wiped the sweat from his face and staggered across the floor, out into the gathering dusk, to headquarters."I was seeing to my fire arms, sir, preparing for to-night's survey. The revolver was loaded. I didn't know it—it went off." Trevelyan's big frame began to sway a little. "I came to report, sir. If I could have it dressed, I'd be able to go. Of course, I expect to go. You won't—"The Colonel signaled for his orderly."My respects to Dr. Mackenzie, and will he come over at once."Then to Trevelyan:"It's a most unfortunate affair, but it would be murder to allow you to undertake the trip. I'll hear the details later.""But, sir—""Don't question my orders, Lieutenant," interrupted the Colonel, briefly."Flesh wound," Mackenzie said.Later, when the dressing was done and Trevelyan was in the hospital, the surgeon looked down at him curiously. "Odd," he said, "that shot! I don't understand how—"Trevelyan turned his drawn face to the surgeon's, meeting his eyes squarely."Confound you! You don't think I shot myself on purpose, do you?"Mackenzie sat down on the edge of the bed, and rubbed his chin."Oh—of course, not," he said slowly.An hour later he and Vaughan, the assistant surgeon, returned."Well, there goes the best officer in the service to his death," the younger man was saying, as he entered, and then as he met Trevelyan's wide, questioning eyes, he broke off."Who's that?" asked Trevelyan, sharply."Your substitute."Trevelyan picked at the sheet."Who did the old man send—Pearson?""Pearson! Not on your life! Stewart, of course."Trevelyan stopped picking at the sheet. He rose with an effort and sat up in bed, supporting himself on his elbows and leaning forward."He has gone?"The assistant standing at the foot of the bed nodded. Trevelyan sat rigid."And I was never told! And he's gone without coming to me!" he said, hoarsely."He spoke about it, but he said he wouldn't disturb you—" the assistant broke off.Suddenly, Trevelyan flung up his arms."God! Why couldn't I have gone! I wouldn't have been a loss to anyone—God!" he choked, and fell back, his face buried in the pillow.The assistant left the room and the surgeon went to the window. Once or twice he glanced at the great, motionless figure on the bed."Jove! that's genuine enough! Guess I must have been mistaken about the shot!"VII.After awhile the surgeon turned from the window, came back to Trevelyan and stooping over him, listened to his breathing, and felt his pulse. Then he went away.Trevelyan lifted his head slowly and looked about him. The room was deserted and he sat up in bed again, grasping its sides. It was as if everything was slipping away from him, and the agony in his brain had crept down to his feet, engulfing and making as nothing the throbbing in his shoulder, or the heat of the growing fever.He stared at the shadows cast by the flickering lamp on the wall opposite. The vision of the trooper's ghastly face had faded for the time, but intenser visions appeared and shifted and reappeared again. First there came the shadow face of his mother, who had been dead for years, and then that of his father—his father who had led that charge at Inkerman. The face seemed turned away. Then there came the face of the aunt who had mothered him so long, and then the shadowy forms haltered as the fever grew and the wall became a glowing blank. Later a face appeared, Stewart's, against the fiery glow. It looked like a dead face—like the dead, ghastly face of the trooper; and then there came Cary's face. It haunted him in a hundred different guises. It came to him as the child-face, as he had known it years ago down at the sea coast fort; and it faded and came again as the face touched with time's maturity, as he had seen it when she first came to England; it shifted again and reappeared as it had been that day of the storm, when he and she had been housed in the old Scottish home together, and the tenderness and the fear were on it; it came again to him as he had seen it last before the receding transport and the oncoming mist had stolen it away from him. And it came once more as he had never seen it—horror-stricken, wide-eyed, and pale—as hewouldsee it, when she looked at him again, knowing the truth."Allegiance—which is absolute." So she had written, and so she would say to him. And he had betrayed his allegiance, and he had lied, and he had turned coward, and had sent Stewart off to die!His fingers gripped at the edges of the bed and he stared fascinated at that face of Cary on the wall—Cary as he had never seen her. It remained fixed. It wouldnotfade.She had known life's truths better than he. Honor, after all, was a tangible thing—as tangible as the devouring agony in his brain. And he had lost his honor—She had written that a man moulds himself into the perfect and complete, or he breaks the clay with his own hands, and he had not believed her until now, when the clay lay broken.It had been coming to this all these months, and he had gone on blindly. Cary had tried to save him by that letter; John had tried to save him, and had come out to this accursed hole to serve him, because he had been a coward and had written for him—not strong enough to serve himself—and he had sent John off to meet the death that he himself deserved. No, he was not worthy of such a death. Death would glorify John. It would have redeemed him.The irrevocable past that had gone from his keeping haunted him ghost-like through the night watches, as did the agony of the future. If there were but a chance—the shadow of a chance—of winning back the last hours!If that face would only fade!And he had thought himself so strong, and he and death had looked each in the face of the other so often!And the long line of pictures on the wall began again, fading and reappearing, but the face of Cary did not fade.After awhile the personality of the face lost itself and it became to him but the symbol of that high living, toward the attainment of which he had failed, falling in the dust.His stiff fingers relaxed on the sides of the bed, and he sank back with a thud like a dead weight. The dead trooper could not have fallen more heavily.The wound in his shoulder was only a flesh hurt—he had been careful of that—he remembered with a grim, awful self-accusation. If it onlyhadgone deeper than he had planned. Before the thought had died he was searching for his handkerchief and when he had found it he began to knot it feverishly and pull it around his throat—sudden strength coming to his hands. Then, with an oath, he jerked at the linen band and flung it from him to the hospital floor, where it lay—a spot of white in the darkness. The power to move deserted him, and his arms hung over the sides of the bed—limp and motionless.And then, remembering Stewart, the agony in his brain increased.He fancied Stewart starting out on the mission, silent, with the silence that comes with the realization of danger—grave with the gravity of its acceptance—the test of courage. Stewart had never been guided by the heedless, passionate impulses that had possessed him, Trevelyan, all his life; but he had held high the standards of life for a man, and he had lived up to the standards.Trevelyan fancied he saw him riding into the thickness of the black shadows.He might do it, and come back from the jaws of death. If a man could do it, he would, but was it humanly possible?Trevelyan beat his hands against his face. No; no man could do it! The Station would wait for Stewart, and wait and wait, and Stewart would not come. They would go to look for him and they would bring him back to him, Trevelyan—dead. But he would not look like the trooper. The vision on the wall had been a mistake.Long ago, the night that Stewart had saved Cary as a child, by his vigil; he, Trevelyan, had crept into the room where they had carried him, and he was sleeping, exhausted. The peace, born of a great sacrifice and a purpose accomplished, had rested on the boy's face. The peace of it came back to Trevelyan, a gift from that dead year.When they brought Stewart home to the Station he would look so.And the minutes turned to hours and the fever increased, and later Trevelyan sank into a doze. The surgeons came in now and again and administered medicines of which he was only dimly conscious, and the fever and the drowsiness grew, and the long night wore away.In the early dawn he was awakened by the feeling that someone was looking steadily at him. His eyes, free from the fever that had gone, met those of the assistant surgeon.Before the full consciousness of the night's agony had come back, the young surgeon spoke."Stewart has returned," he said, quietly, "but he's been badly hurt and he wants you. If you feel strong enough—"Trevelyan sprang to the floor. He was trembling with excitement and the weakness left by the fever."Thank God, he's safe—" and then as he looked more closely in the assistant's face, "He isn't hurt seriously—" his voice trailed off.The assistant got Trevelyan's slippers and threw a blanket over him and drew his arm through his, giving him support. It seemed strange to be supporting Trevelyan."I'm afraid he is," he said. "He did the job all right and reported like the soldier he is. McCann's game, too, and not hurt. Stewart—" The assistant was killing time.Trevelyan wiped the moisture from his face."Yes?"Vaughan looked straight ahead of him, to avoid meeting Trevelyan's eyes."Mackenzie is with him," he said, slowly. "He's doing everything on earth, but the wound's in the back, and there—isn't the ghost of a chance—and, he's sent for you."VIII.The assistant walked slowly, adapting himself to Trevelyan's halting steps, and he braced his arm against the weight Trevelyan had thrown upon it. He did not speak again, and Trevelyan did not question him further.Trevelyan's big frame reeled across the threshold, when, after what seemed to him an interminable time, the assistant led him into the room where Stewart lay. He caught himself up immediately, however, and stared at the group around the bed. The Colonel was there and one of the older officers, and Mackenzie was leaning over something long and still that lay stretched on the bed. The dead weight suddenly increased on Vaughan's arm and he winced with the pain. The two officers near the foot of the bed turned at the shuffling footsteps and Mackenzie looked up for an instant. Then he went back to feeling Stewart's pulse, and without glancing around again, spoke quietly to his assistant."The other syringe—this doesn't work just right."The assistant went away and returned with the syringe. Trevelyan was left standing alone in the middle of the room. No one noticed him. He waited until the hypodermic stimulant had been administered and Mackenzie had straightened himself from his stooping position over the bed. Then he came forward, and pushed his way past the Colonel and the officer and Vaughan and Mackenzie, and leaned over the bed."John," he said.The head turned on the pillow slowly, and Stewart looked up at him. He made an almost imperceptible motion of recognition with his head."You sent for me?""Yes," Stewart said, weakly.Trevelyan remained motionless, and no one spoke. The Colonel, at the foot of the bed, stirred a little.Stewart's hot hands drew the covering up between his fingers and crushed it with a sudden strength, born of a terrible agony. He turned his eyes to Mackenzie."If you could get me more on my side—that's better."Mackenzie leaned over him."Don't try to talk to Trevelyan just yet," he suggested."I must. If you'd all leave us for a little—""You won't wait?"Stewart looked straight into Mackenzie's eyes."There's no waiting; there's no 'yet'—is there?" he asked.Mackenzie stared at the covering on the bed."You're pretty sick," he said, very slowly, and he tried to say something else, but the words refused to come.He turned and went out of the room and Vaughan and the officers followed him.Trevelyan still remained motionless."Have they gone?" Stewart asked, looking up at him, "I can't turn my head to see.""They've gone," said Trevelyan."Then sit down on the edge of the bed—carefully, if you can; jars hurt. I've a good deal to say and the time's short—Mackenzie will be back before long.""You want to give me messages?""No," said Stewart, "It's about yourself. Why were you afraid?"The lump in Trevelyan's throat broke, and something of the old strength came back then."It was Cary," he said, hoarsely."I thought so. It was a risky thing to have tried, though—that shooting. It might have gone deeper, or someone else might have seen you.""You—saw—me—then?"[image]"You—saw—me—then?"Stewart nodded. Speaking was exquisite torture."Do you realize what you've done—that you've broken your life—"Trevelyan sat motionless on the edge of the bed, his eyes fixed on a point of the pillow. The agony of the night before had been as nothing to this."You were an officer and you were afraid of danger—you! And you were coward enough to be willing to send another man to his death—" the young engineer broke off, breathing with labor. "You were willing to let me die. Did you think that would make it easier to win Cary?"Then Trevelyan spoke."It's all true," he said, speaking so slowly that each word fell upon the deathly stillness in the room, like the slow thud of earth upon a coffin, "It's—all—true——but that! I was afraid and I was all you say, coward enough to let another man die or suffer as you are suffering now; and I've dishonored the Service and I've broken my life, but before God, I didn't know that you'd be sent in my place. As for Cary—""For Cary," said Stewart, "and for your father and my mother you're to swear to me to hold your tongue over this business. It's like you to go and blurt the whole thing out, but you're to swear you won't open your lips on the subject—ever; and you're to resign your commission in the Service as soon as it's possible without exciting suspicion."Trevelyan drew back; his throat pulsing. There was the old, odd throbbing in his head, and the dimness of vision, too. After awhile the mist passed."God! man, but you're hard!""I'm kind to the home people, and I'm just with you—am I not?""Yes; oh, yes; but to bear it in silence—never to be able to meet one of the men of the mess without the dead haunting shadow of it on me; to leave the Service—that's the worst of all—never to be able to fight for England again as a soldier, or redeem myself—as a man!"He rose from the bed and went over to the opposite wall, flinging his bent arm against it and leaning forward, his face hid. Stewart watched him from the bed, his eyes reflecting a great pity. If Trevelyan knew half of what his judgment cost him! If Trevelyan only knew how gladly he was dying in his stead! If only Trevelyan knew that he was more kind than cruel!Through the window, into the absolute quiet of the room, came the hurrying of feet and the neighing of horses. The Colonel was sending out a squad of armed men to strike to the heart of the native trouble. Somewhere in the distance a bugler was playing.Trevelyan turned, his back to the wall, his arms flung out."Isn't there any other way?"Stewart struggled to a reclining position, supporting himself on one arm, and he summoned all his love and all his mercy."You injured me," he said. "Mackenzie says I can't pull through the day—but if I should, I'm injured for life. I have a right to judge you. There is no other way."The music of the bugle rose, and swelled, and then melted away.Trevelyan came back to the bed—passive!"I'll swear anything you ask."Then a little later:"Am I to tell Cary?""You are to tell Cary or not, as you want to," said Stewart, looking at him curiously."Is there nothing I can say to Cary for you—when—when I—get back to England?"Stewart shook his head. The weakness he had fought against so long came back, as did the agony."Nothing; but that I thought of her—of them all. Can you reach that water? Ah!"Trevelyan flung himself down by the bed."You shan't slip off this way!" he said, tensely, the pain of his own crushed life disappearing before the thought of Stewart's ebbing one.Stewart did not hear him."Call Mackenzie," he said, shortly, "Call Mackenzie—quick!"IX.Outside the hurrying and the tramping and the neighing of the horses increased and intensified the silence inside where Stewart lay unconscious, Mackenzie and Vaughan and Trevelyan working over him.Later in the morning the fighting squad departed, and over the Station fell a stillness as great as that which brooded over the hospital.After a desperate struggle they brought Stewart to, and then Mackenzie, happening to glance at Trevelyan, saw that the dressing had slipped from his shoulder and that his shirt was stained.He got him into an adjoining room and redressed the shoulder and insisted on his lying down, in spite of Trevelyan's entreaties to get back to Stewart."Everything in the world is being done for him. Keep quiet.""Keep quiet, while his life's slipping away!" cried Trevelyan, fiercely, "Not while there's a breath left in my own body. I'll pull him through or I'll die!""You'll lie still, just where you are," ordered Mackenzie. "He's holding his own just now. He'll need all the strength he's got, and yours, and all he can get—later. I'll call you."Trevelyan slept for two hours—heavily, exhaustively; then Mackenzie woke him."Come," he said, briefly, "Stewart's worse."Trevelyan sat up on the lounge and flung back his head; through his being thrilled the old lost defiance; the old lost strength. He went into Stewart's room and sat down by the bed.The long hours crept away and the still shadows of night gathered, and through the hours and the shadows Mackenzie and Trevelyan watched. Stewart continued to sink.At midnight, Mackenzie went over to the window, turning his back on the bed and Trevelyan.There was no hope—but Trevelyan wouldn't believe it! Stewart was dying, and Trevelyan obstinately refused to relinquish the fight. Trevelyan didn't know when he was beaten. And Mackenzie, grown prematurely gray in the service of life against death, wondered all over again why human strength is so weak when waged against the great, mute Force of the world.Trevelyan sat rigid; and he gathered all the strength of his life and his love; and that imperishable part that had been crushed by his crime, but not destroyed, and turned them to the conquering of this hour, and that grim Presence that was drawing nearer.He had ceased to think of himself and the future for the first time since he had fallen. If it ever once occurred to him, he regarded it vaguely and indifferently. To-morrow, he would wake up to the living death that lay before him, but for the present, he had no thought beyond the still, motionless form stretched on the bed. He concentrated all his passion, all his will strength, and massed them together, as a breastwork, around Stewart's ebbing life.The grasp of the hand that was clasping his grew weaker.Trevelyan did not think to call Mackenzie. He had forgotten he was over there by the window; that they three, Stewart and Death and he, Trevelyan, were not alone together. He forced stimulant between Stewart's blue lips. And then he went in search of Stewart's ebbing life, as a swimmer goes down into the depths to bring forth a living man, drowning.Once the chill of the Shadowy Presence touched him, through the growing chill of Stewart's fingers; and he rubbed them, beating back into the icy veins the heat of his nature, and by and by the Shadowy Presence sullenly drew back, and back, andback.After a time, Mackenzie, aroused by the oppressive stillness, turned.He hesitated, and then came to the bed and leaned over Stewart's relaxed form. Stewart's face was turned up to his, drawn and thin and pinched, in the light of the failing lamp, but he was breathing regularly. Mackenzie touched one of his hands. It was moist and warm. And then, dumbly, he turned to Trevelyan.Trevelyan still sat by the bed, rigid; and his eyes looked back at Mackenzie—dull and spiritless, and his fingers were cold, with the chill of the depths.Mackenzie touched him on the arm.Trevelyan struggled to his feet."If you could give me a bracer. I'm a bit gone off—"
III.
In the spring the natives grew restless.
"They're stretching themselves after a long sleep," said a young subaltern, knowingly.
"They're planning mutiny," said the Colonel to himself, and he ordered out a band of men for investigating the neighborhood.
The little band was delayed seven hours over the extremest limit set for its return.
When it came it bore a dead man back to the Station. The man had been a Briton and of the regiment.
Then the grim spirit of the military station rose, as the gray, still sea rises at the onsweep of the gale.
War had come.
IV.
For an hour the Colonel was closeted. There was a line of attack to be planned. He would talk it over with his older officers presently; for the time being he could think better alone. It was necessary not to be too hasty—to keep a controlling hand on the lever of this engine of war, of which he was in command. It was necessary to strike decisively, when he did strike, and to the heart of it. That was it—to the heart! The natives were on the move, the investigating band had reported.Whereto strike? A surveying officer; an engineer could judge. Who was the best man to send. It was like ordering a man into the mouth of death.
The Colonel leaned his head in his hand and beat the end of his pen against the deal of the table. Coolness was wanted; knowledge of surveying; courage. That was it—courage!
Only two faces rose before him and haunted him, to the exclusion of all others. Of the two, Trevelyan's was the most persistent.
True, he was young and he was untried, and he was probably the most unpopular officer at the Station, but in his veins was the blood that endures and slays and conquers!
Properly executed the fulfilling of the orders would mean his proved skill as an officer. If he failed—the Colonel laid down his pen. That blood could not fail.
There was his unusual strength, too, to be taken in his favor, his strength and his endurance. He remembered that Trevelyan had stood intense heat better than any man at the Station; that he could live on less food, and had a nicer knowledge of horsemanship than any officer or trooper in his command; that technically he was brilliant at surveying. The majority of commanders would probably decide between the two in favor of Stewart, but the Colonel had run the gauntlet to success a good deal on instinct. The Colonel prided himself on instinct. It would be Trevelyan!
Two hours later Trevelyan received his orders.
"Very well, sir," "I understand, sir," "Yes, sir," he had replied, and after he had left, the Colonel nodded and smiled grimly at the young engineer's self-control in the face of an order that might mean death.
Trevelyan walked blindly back to his quarters. There was a queer singing in his head and beating at his temples. He stumbled across the threshold and he sat down on the edge of his bunk and pressed his hands hard against his temples to still that mad, incessant beating. His eyes remained wide and fixed at one spot on the floor.
It had come at last; the test and the opportunity for which he had blindly, passionately prayed as a child; for which he had striven and worked as a boy; it had come and it had found him unprepared to meet it!
He thought of the ride—alone, except for a trooper—and on the spot of the floor, he pictured the blackness and the danger, as a man brings forth a likeness on a dark plate. The picture came and went, and went and came again on the spot on the floor and he sprang up with a choked cry. To go out into that stillness and darkness; to face the blackness of death—
They might get back his body—what good would his body do anyone—and they might get it home, but they probably wouldn't. The utter silence in that blackness of death—so great that her voice could never reach him!
He put his foot over the possessed spot on the floor, and his leg shook as he did so. He saw his leg tremble, and he knew it and he did not care! He had turned coward, and—he did not care! What was courage when her voice could not reach him in the blackness of death? He might live through it, and she might care more for him, for it, but the chances were two-thirds for death.
The man they had brought in that morning! What a ghastly sight he had been! The eyes had refused to remain closed and they had stared at him in all the horror of dead sightlessness. And the lips had been drawn back from the teeth and had stiffened so, in the agony of the death struggle. God! And they would bring him back like that—like that—like that!
What vision did those staring eyes see but unutterable, unpenetrable blackness? What speech could that grinning mouth ever form again? What sound could pierce the seal laid on the hearing?
They had told him that the trooper had a sweetheart waiting for him somewhere off in Ireland. Well, even love could not break the bonds of death, and make him speak and hear and caress her as of old.
There was something mightier than love after all—mightier even than the love he had for Cary.
And Trevelyan cowered, afraid.
V.
Mackenzie, the surgeon, lounging in a big wicker chair, his heels higher than his head, lazily rolled cigarettes and winked at the dazzling reflection of the sun on the walls of the barracks. Off in the distance he could see the little subaltern walking energetically down the road. The little subaltern was gotten up regardless in white linen. He was evidently on his way to drink tea with the Colonel's daughter.
"My eyes," said Mackenzie, aloud, "Will nothing interfere with his afternoon tea! The devil only knows if he'll be alive this time to-morrow. Better keep cool when he can. He's a blank little fool! Thinks Jessica Q will tumble when he says good-bye—does he? Tea and love-makingnow!" and the surgeon fanned himself with his hand. The surgeon had never taken kindly to the little subaltern.
Suddenly his feet came down with a crash and he leaned forward in the wicker chair. Bennett had stopped the little subaltern and the little subaltern was talking back excitedly and kicking up the white dust, regardless of the fresh linen suit.
Mackenzie rose and stretched himself.
"Wonder if the old man has issued orders? Something's up, sure as a gun, when that kid forgets Jessica Q and his clothes."
Three of the mess who had been talking earnestly at the end of the piazza, turned at the sound of voices in the road and joined the two there.
"Not Trevelyan, you say? It isn't Trevelyan?" one of them was saying, as Mackenzie came up.
"Yes, it is, too! Jove! If I only had his chance," sighed the little subaltern, twirling around distractedly on one heel.
"There! There! That'll do, Baby," said Bennett, patting him on the head. The little subaltern squirmed, but he kept listening to what Bennett was saying.
"He's a rum comrade, but I imagine he can do it," said Bennett looking toward the barracks, thoughtfully, "He knows the fine points of surveying from A to Z, and—"
"—He's got more nerve than any chap I ever knew," put in Mackenzie.
"Is the old man going to send an escort with him? I bet if he does, it'll be Sandy McCann," said Pearson.
"What's this? What's this I hear about Robert being sent off to-night?"
Young Stewart of the Engineers joined the group hastily. His uniform was covered with dust and he held his helmet under his arm, wiping the moisture from his face.
"Why, it's almost certain death. I—"
"That's why we're here—to face death, if we have to," said the little subaltern, with an odd new gravity, and Bennett suddenly stopped short in patting his head.
Stewart turned.
"True," he said, briefly, running his right hand up and down the sleeve of his left arm "but—"
"And it probably won't be any worse than what we'll have to face to-morrow or next day," said Bennett, as Stewart paused. "He hasn't been sociable and over decent to us, but we'll call on him and wish him luck. Come along, boys!"
The group laughed a little. "All right," they said.
Stewart followed them up to Trevelyan's quarters.
After all, why should he feel it so! It was Trevelyan's one chance to redeem himself with the regiment and turn the tide of popularity in his favor. Fate was not as cruel as she seemed. And Trevelyan bore a charmed life. And he knew Trevelyan could do it. Trevelyan would do it—well! Trevelyan might have failed in the shaping of the details of life this last year, but in the supreme hour—
For Stewart remembered the climb down the turret tower and the mad scaling of the crags in Scotland, and the storm and the white fury of the waters near the American fort, and the desperate swim, and the child who had done these things because of what he would one day do as a man.
The little subaltern banged on Trevelyan's door.
VI.
Trevelyan, still standing over the spot on the floor, raised his eyes and looked vaguely in the direction of the sound. He remained silent.
The little subaltern banged again, and Trevelyan heard the echo of voices.
He put his hand up to his collar, loosening it, and then he crossed the room and flung open the door.
"Hello, you fellows," he cried, "What d'you want of a chap now?"
The little subaltern tumbled into the room, the other half dozen members of the mess on top of him.
"Hello, yourself," they cried, "How d'you like the job the Colonel's given you?"
"Like it!" Trevelyan threw back his head and his large, well formed throat pulsed as he spoke, "Why, it's the greatest thing that ever happened to a chap of my age!"
His messmates formed a little group around him.
"How's your nerve?"
Trevelyan laughed. It was only Stewart, who stood by silent, listening, who felt vaguely the jar in it.
"Oh,mynerve is all right. How's your own at the prospect of a row? 'I go to prepare a place for you'—" he went on in a deep chant.
"Robert!"
It was Stewart.
"Oh, I suppose that was a bit in bad taste, but when a chap's making his last will and testament, he forgets the teachings of the old kirk—"
"Sure! What time do you start?" from the little subaltern.
"Fire arms in good order?" put in Bennett.
"In an hour. No, I'm not going to trust any of these oily natives to clean them. I'll see to them myself."
Trevelyan moved away from the group.
"We'll have something on the strength of it!" said the little subaltern, "A toast: 'To the Queen—God bless her—and the Queen's courier!' How's that?"
He glanced conceitedly about the room. The men of the mess laughed good naturedly.
"Well, here's my hand on the success of it," said Mackenzie, a little later, at leaving. He suddenly regretted he had not been a bit kinder to the young engineer. A fellow with such nerve, deserved more than they had all given him.
They filed out after awhile. Stewart alone remained. He put his hand on Trevelyan's shoulder, as he had used to do long ago when they were boys, pacing the great library of a rainy afternoon, and he walked with Trevelyan up and down the length of the room.
"It's a risky business, Robert," he said, in his grave voice, "but I believe you're the man for it."
"I suppose," said Trevelyan, "if it hadn't been me it would have been Pearson."
"I suppose so, but Pearson couldn't do it."
"Neither may I."
"Youwill," said Stewart.
After a little, he went on, speaking as though to himself.
"I wish to God—"
He did not finish his sentence.
Trevelyan shook off the hand on his shoulder.
"I understand, and—I'm grateful, of course, and all that, but if you'd leave me alone for awhile. There is a letter or two and—"
"Of course."
At the door Stewart turned.
"I'll see you before you go," he said.
Trevelyan listened until his footsteps, faded away and then he sat down at his small deal table, his eyes turned away from the spot on the floor. The vision of that dead, ghastly face had come back.
If it wasn't him it would be Pearson, probably, or anyhow, some other man—glad of the chance. Why should he deprive him, whoever he was, of the chance? A grim smile crept around Trevelyan's mouth, and then he let his head fall forward against the edge of the wood; his arms hanging limp between his long legs stretched out straight under the table. The horrible fear had returned, and the darkness and the blackness of death seemed swallowing him up. Never to see her again! Never to touch her hand again, or to hear her footsteps in passing, or the sound of her voice; to die—not with other men in the daylight and in battle—but to be shot down like a dog, alone, in the darkness—
The steady ticking of the watch he had laid in front of him on the table, throbbed feebly like a dying pulse, close to his ear, and he sat, his forehead against the edge of the table, his eyes staring down at the shadowed floor.
After awhile he got up and steadied himself and went over to the door and flung it open and looked out. Far off, the little subaltern was coming his way. He hurried back to the other end of the room and got out his fire arms and examined them, and began to polish them vigorously. The little subaltern looked in.
"Hard at work? Do you want help?"
Trevelyan looked up and nodded.
"No, I guess not," he said, pleasantly.
The little subaltern sighed enviously, hesitated, and then passed on.
Trevelyan drew a deep breath and laid down his polishing cloth and picked up his revolver. His hands played nervously over the trigger a moment. The catch seemed stiff. He tried it again.
There was a sudden glare and a loud report, and Trevelyan sank back, the blood staining the shoulder of his uniform.
After all, if one had nerve, it could be easily done and was soon over!
He turned sharply and leaned against the table, facing the window, one hand to his shoulder. He fancied he heard footsteps receding. After awhile he wiped the sweat from his face and staggered across the floor, out into the gathering dusk, to headquarters.
"I was seeing to my fire arms, sir, preparing for to-night's survey. The revolver was loaded. I didn't know it—it went off." Trevelyan's big frame began to sway a little. "I came to report, sir. If I could have it dressed, I'd be able to go. Of course, I expect to go. You won't—"
The Colonel signaled for his orderly.
"My respects to Dr. Mackenzie, and will he come over at once."
Then to Trevelyan:
"It's a most unfortunate affair, but it would be murder to allow you to undertake the trip. I'll hear the details later."
"But, sir—"
"Don't question my orders, Lieutenant," interrupted the Colonel, briefly.
"Flesh wound," Mackenzie said.
Later, when the dressing was done and Trevelyan was in the hospital, the surgeon looked down at him curiously. "Odd," he said, "that shot! I don't understand how—"
Trevelyan turned his drawn face to the surgeon's, meeting his eyes squarely.
"Confound you! You don't think I shot myself on purpose, do you?"
Mackenzie sat down on the edge of the bed, and rubbed his chin.
"Oh—of course, not," he said slowly.
An hour later he and Vaughan, the assistant surgeon, returned.
"Well, there goes the best officer in the service to his death," the younger man was saying, as he entered, and then as he met Trevelyan's wide, questioning eyes, he broke off.
"Who's that?" asked Trevelyan, sharply.
"Your substitute."
Trevelyan picked at the sheet.
"Who did the old man send—Pearson?"
"Pearson! Not on your life! Stewart, of course."
Trevelyan stopped picking at the sheet. He rose with an effort and sat up in bed, supporting himself on his elbows and leaning forward.
"He has gone?"
The assistant standing at the foot of the bed nodded. Trevelyan sat rigid.
"And I was never told! And he's gone without coming to me!" he said, hoarsely.
"He spoke about it, but he said he wouldn't disturb you—" the assistant broke off.
Suddenly, Trevelyan flung up his arms.
"God! Why couldn't I have gone! I wouldn't have been a loss to anyone—God!" he choked, and fell back, his face buried in the pillow.
The assistant left the room and the surgeon went to the window. Once or twice he glanced at the great, motionless figure on the bed.
"Jove! that's genuine enough! Guess I must have been mistaken about the shot!"
VII.
After awhile the surgeon turned from the window, came back to Trevelyan and stooping over him, listened to his breathing, and felt his pulse. Then he went away.
Trevelyan lifted his head slowly and looked about him. The room was deserted and he sat up in bed again, grasping its sides. It was as if everything was slipping away from him, and the agony in his brain had crept down to his feet, engulfing and making as nothing the throbbing in his shoulder, or the heat of the growing fever.
He stared at the shadows cast by the flickering lamp on the wall opposite. The vision of the trooper's ghastly face had faded for the time, but intenser visions appeared and shifted and reappeared again. First there came the shadow face of his mother, who had been dead for years, and then that of his father—his father who had led that charge at Inkerman. The face seemed turned away. Then there came the face of the aunt who had mothered him so long, and then the shadowy forms haltered as the fever grew and the wall became a glowing blank. Later a face appeared, Stewart's, against the fiery glow. It looked like a dead face—like the dead, ghastly face of the trooper; and then there came Cary's face. It haunted him in a hundred different guises. It came to him as the child-face, as he had known it years ago down at the sea coast fort; and it faded and came again as the face touched with time's maturity, as he had seen it when she first came to England; it shifted again and reappeared as it had been that day of the storm, when he and she had been housed in the old Scottish home together, and the tenderness and the fear were on it; it came again to him as he had seen it last before the receding transport and the oncoming mist had stolen it away from him. And it came once more as he had never seen it—horror-stricken, wide-eyed, and pale—as hewouldsee it, when she looked at him again, knowing the truth.
"Allegiance—which is absolute." So she had written, and so she would say to him. And he had betrayed his allegiance, and he had lied, and he had turned coward, and had sent Stewart off to die!
His fingers gripped at the edges of the bed and he stared fascinated at that face of Cary on the wall—Cary as he had never seen her. It remained fixed. It wouldnotfade.
She had known life's truths better than he. Honor, after all, was a tangible thing—as tangible as the devouring agony in his brain. And he had lost his honor—
She had written that a man moulds himself into the perfect and complete, or he breaks the clay with his own hands, and he had not believed her until now, when the clay lay broken.
It had been coming to this all these months, and he had gone on blindly. Cary had tried to save him by that letter; John had tried to save him, and had come out to this accursed hole to serve him, because he had been a coward and had written for him—not strong enough to serve himself—and he had sent John off to meet the death that he himself deserved. No, he was not worthy of such a death. Death would glorify John. It would have redeemed him.
The irrevocable past that had gone from his keeping haunted him ghost-like through the night watches, as did the agony of the future. If there were but a chance—the shadow of a chance—of winning back the last hours!
If that face would only fade!
And he had thought himself so strong, and he and death had looked each in the face of the other so often!
And the long line of pictures on the wall began again, fading and reappearing, but the face of Cary did not fade.
After awhile the personality of the face lost itself and it became to him but the symbol of that high living, toward the attainment of which he had failed, falling in the dust.
His stiff fingers relaxed on the sides of the bed, and he sank back with a thud like a dead weight. The dead trooper could not have fallen more heavily.
The wound in his shoulder was only a flesh hurt—he had been careful of that—he remembered with a grim, awful self-accusation. If it onlyhadgone deeper than he had planned. Before the thought had died he was searching for his handkerchief and when he had found it he began to knot it feverishly and pull it around his throat—sudden strength coming to his hands. Then, with an oath, he jerked at the linen band and flung it from him to the hospital floor, where it lay—a spot of white in the darkness. The power to move deserted him, and his arms hung over the sides of the bed—limp and motionless.
And then, remembering Stewart, the agony in his brain increased.
He fancied Stewart starting out on the mission, silent, with the silence that comes with the realization of danger—grave with the gravity of its acceptance—the test of courage. Stewart had never been guided by the heedless, passionate impulses that had possessed him, Trevelyan, all his life; but he had held high the standards of life for a man, and he had lived up to the standards.
Trevelyan fancied he saw him riding into the thickness of the black shadows.
He might do it, and come back from the jaws of death. If a man could do it, he would, but was it humanly possible?
Trevelyan beat his hands against his face. No; no man could do it! The Station would wait for Stewart, and wait and wait, and Stewart would not come. They would go to look for him and they would bring him back to him, Trevelyan—dead. But he would not look like the trooper. The vision on the wall had been a mistake.
Long ago, the night that Stewart had saved Cary as a child, by his vigil; he, Trevelyan, had crept into the room where they had carried him, and he was sleeping, exhausted. The peace, born of a great sacrifice and a purpose accomplished, had rested on the boy's face. The peace of it came back to Trevelyan, a gift from that dead year.
When they brought Stewart home to the Station he would look so.
And the minutes turned to hours and the fever increased, and later Trevelyan sank into a doze. The surgeons came in now and again and administered medicines of which he was only dimly conscious, and the fever and the drowsiness grew, and the long night wore away.
In the early dawn he was awakened by the feeling that someone was looking steadily at him. His eyes, free from the fever that had gone, met those of the assistant surgeon.
Before the full consciousness of the night's agony had come back, the young surgeon spoke.
"Stewart has returned," he said, quietly, "but he's been badly hurt and he wants you. If you feel strong enough—"
Trevelyan sprang to the floor. He was trembling with excitement and the weakness left by the fever.
"Thank God, he's safe—" and then as he looked more closely in the assistant's face, "He isn't hurt seriously—" his voice trailed off.
The assistant got Trevelyan's slippers and threw a blanket over him and drew his arm through his, giving him support. It seemed strange to be supporting Trevelyan.
"I'm afraid he is," he said. "He did the job all right and reported like the soldier he is. McCann's game, too, and not hurt. Stewart—" The assistant was killing time.
Trevelyan wiped the moisture from his face.
"Yes?"
Vaughan looked straight ahead of him, to avoid meeting Trevelyan's eyes.
"Mackenzie is with him," he said, slowly. "He's doing everything on earth, but the wound's in the back, and there—isn't the ghost of a chance—and, he's sent for you."
VIII.
The assistant walked slowly, adapting himself to Trevelyan's halting steps, and he braced his arm against the weight Trevelyan had thrown upon it. He did not speak again, and Trevelyan did not question him further.
Trevelyan's big frame reeled across the threshold, when, after what seemed to him an interminable time, the assistant led him into the room where Stewart lay. He caught himself up immediately, however, and stared at the group around the bed. The Colonel was there and one of the older officers, and Mackenzie was leaning over something long and still that lay stretched on the bed. The dead weight suddenly increased on Vaughan's arm and he winced with the pain. The two officers near the foot of the bed turned at the shuffling footsteps and Mackenzie looked up for an instant. Then he went back to feeling Stewart's pulse, and without glancing around again, spoke quietly to his assistant.
"The other syringe—this doesn't work just right."
The assistant went away and returned with the syringe. Trevelyan was left standing alone in the middle of the room. No one noticed him. He waited until the hypodermic stimulant had been administered and Mackenzie had straightened himself from his stooping position over the bed. Then he came forward, and pushed his way past the Colonel and the officer and Vaughan and Mackenzie, and leaned over the bed.
"John," he said.
The head turned on the pillow slowly, and Stewart looked up at him. He made an almost imperceptible motion of recognition with his head.
"You sent for me?"
"Yes," Stewart said, weakly.
Trevelyan remained motionless, and no one spoke. The Colonel, at the foot of the bed, stirred a little.
Stewart's hot hands drew the covering up between his fingers and crushed it with a sudden strength, born of a terrible agony. He turned his eyes to Mackenzie.
"If you could get me more on my side—that's better."
Mackenzie leaned over him.
"Don't try to talk to Trevelyan just yet," he suggested.
"I must. If you'd all leave us for a little—"
"You won't wait?"
Stewart looked straight into Mackenzie's eyes.
"There's no waiting; there's no 'yet'—is there?" he asked.
Mackenzie stared at the covering on the bed.
"You're pretty sick," he said, very slowly, and he tried to say something else, but the words refused to come.
He turned and went out of the room and Vaughan and the officers followed him.
Trevelyan still remained motionless.
"Have they gone?" Stewart asked, looking up at him, "I can't turn my head to see."
"They've gone," said Trevelyan.
"Then sit down on the edge of the bed—carefully, if you can; jars hurt. I've a good deal to say and the time's short—Mackenzie will be back before long."
"You want to give me messages?"
"No," said Stewart, "It's about yourself. Why were you afraid?"
The lump in Trevelyan's throat broke, and something of the old strength came back then.
"It was Cary," he said, hoarsely.
"I thought so. It was a risky thing to have tried, though—that shooting. It might have gone deeper, or someone else might have seen you."
"You—saw—me—then?"
[image]"You—saw—me—then?"
[image]
[image]
"You—saw—me—then?"
Stewart nodded. Speaking was exquisite torture.
"Do you realize what you've done—that you've broken your life—"
Trevelyan sat motionless on the edge of the bed, his eyes fixed on a point of the pillow. The agony of the night before had been as nothing to this.
"You were an officer and you were afraid of danger—you! And you were coward enough to be willing to send another man to his death—" the young engineer broke off, breathing with labor. "You were willing to let me die. Did you think that would make it easier to win Cary?"
Then Trevelyan spoke.
"It's all true," he said, speaking so slowly that each word fell upon the deathly stillness in the room, like the slow thud of earth upon a coffin, "It's—all—true——but that! I was afraid and I was all you say, coward enough to let another man die or suffer as you are suffering now; and I've dishonored the Service and I've broken my life, but before God, I didn't know that you'd be sent in my place. As for Cary—"
"For Cary," said Stewart, "and for your father and my mother you're to swear to me to hold your tongue over this business. It's like you to go and blurt the whole thing out, but you're to swear you won't open your lips on the subject—ever; and you're to resign your commission in the Service as soon as it's possible without exciting suspicion."
Trevelyan drew back; his throat pulsing. There was the old, odd throbbing in his head, and the dimness of vision, too. After awhile the mist passed.
"God! man, but you're hard!"
"I'm kind to the home people, and I'm just with you—am I not?"
"Yes; oh, yes; but to bear it in silence—never to be able to meet one of the men of the mess without the dead haunting shadow of it on me; to leave the Service—that's the worst of all—never to be able to fight for England again as a soldier, or redeem myself—as a man!"
He rose from the bed and went over to the opposite wall, flinging his bent arm against it and leaning forward, his face hid. Stewart watched him from the bed, his eyes reflecting a great pity. If Trevelyan knew half of what his judgment cost him! If Trevelyan only knew how gladly he was dying in his stead! If only Trevelyan knew that he was more kind than cruel!
Through the window, into the absolute quiet of the room, came the hurrying of feet and the neighing of horses. The Colonel was sending out a squad of armed men to strike to the heart of the native trouble. Somewhere in the distance a bugler was playing.
Trevelyan turned, his back to the wall, his arms flung out.
"Isn't there any other way?"
Stewart struggled to a reclining position, supporting himself on one arm, and he summoned all his love and all his mercy.
"You injured me," he said. "Mackenzie says I can't pull through the day—but if I should, I'm injured for life. I have a right to judge you. There is no other way."
The music of the bugle rose, and swelled, and then melted away.
Trevelyan came back to the bed—passive!
"I'll swear anything you ask."
Then a little later:
"Am I to tell Cary?"
"You are to tell Cary or not, as you want to," said Stewart, looking at him curiously.
"Is there nothing I can say to Cary for you—when—when I—get back to England?"
Stewart shook his head. The weakness he had fought against so long came back, as did the agony.
"Nothing; but that I thought of her—of them all. Can you reach that water? Ah!"
Trevelyan flung himself down by the bed.
"You shan't slip off this way!" he said, tensely, the pain of his own crushed life disappearing before the thought of Stewart's ebbing one.
Stewart did not hear him.
"Call Mackenzie," he said, shortly, "Call Mackenzie—quick!"
IX.
Outside the hurrying and the tramping and the neighing of the horses increased and intensified the silence inside where Stewart lay unconscious, Mackenzie and Vaughan and Trevelyan working over him.
Later in the morning the fighting squad departed, and over the Station fell a stillness as great as that which brooded over the hospital.
After a desperate struggle they brought Stewart to, and then Mackenzie, happening to glance at Trevelyan, saw that the dressing had slipped from his shoulder and that his shirt was stained.
He got him into an adjoining room and redressed the shoulder and insisted on his lying down, in spite of Trevelyan's entreaties to get back to Stewart.
"Everything in the world is being done for him. Keep quiet."
"Keep quiet, while his life's slipping away!" cried Trevelyan, fiercely, "Not while there's a breath left in my own body. I'll pull him through or I'll die!"
"You'll lie still, just where you are," ordered Mackenzie. "He's holding his own just now. He'll need all the strength he's got, and yours, and all he can get—later. I'll call you."
Trevelyan slept for two hours—heavily, exhaustively; then Mackenzie woke him.
"Come," he said, briefly, "Stewart's worse."
Trevelyan sat up on the lounge and flung back his head; through his being thrilled the old lost defiance; the old lost strength. He went into Stewart's room and sat down by the bed.
The long hours crept away and the still shadows of night gathered, and through the hours and the shadows Mackenzie and Trevelyan watched. Stewart continued to sink.
At midnight, Mackenzie went over to the window, turning his back on the bed and Trevelyan.
There was no hope—but Trevelyan wouldn't believe it! Stewart was dying, and Trevelyan obstinately refused to relinquish the fight. Trevelyan didn't know when he was beaten. And Mackenzie, grown prematurely gray in the service of life against death, wondered all over again why human strength is so weak when waged against the great, mute Force of the world.
Trevelyan sat rigid; and he gathered all the strength of his life and his love; and that imperishable part that had been crushed by his crime, but not destroyed, and turned them to the conquering of this hour, and that grim Presence that was drawing nearer.
He had ceased to think of himself and the future for the first time since he had fallen. If it ever once occurred to him, he regarded it vaguely and indifferently. To-morrow, he would wake up to the living death that lay before him, but for the present, he had no thought beyond the still, motionless form stretched on the bed. He concentrated all his passion, all his will strength, and massed them together, as a breastwork, around Stewart's ebbing life.
The grasp of the hand that was clasping his grew weaker.
Trevelyan did not think to call Mackenzie. He had forgotten he was over there by the window; that they three, Stewart and Death and he, Trevelyan, were not alone together. He forced stimulant between Stewart's blue lips. And then he went in search of Stewart's ebbing life, as a swimmer goes down into the depths to bring forth a living man, drowning.
Once the chill of the Shadowy Presence touched him, through the growing chill of Stewart's fingers; and he rubbed them, beating back into the icy veins the heat of his nature, and by and by the Shadowy Presence sullenly drew back, and back, andback.
After a time, Mackenzie, aroused by the oppressive stillness, turned.
He hesitated, and then came to the bed and leaned over Stewart's relaxed form. Stewart's face was turned up to his, drawn and thin and pinched, in the light of the failing lamp, but he was breathing regularly. Mackenzie touched one of his hands. It was moist and warm. And then, dumbly, he turned to Trevelyan.
Trevelyan still sat by the bed, rigid; and his eyes looked back at Mackenzie—dull and spiritless, and his fingers were cold, with the chill of the depths.
Mackenzie touched him on the arm.
Trevelyan struggled to his feet.
"If you could give me a bracer. I'm a bit gone off—"