Part 25 (1/2)

”So you never knew what brought Mr. Feversham to Halfa?” she asked. ”Did you not ask him? Why didn't you? Why?”

She was disappointed, and the bitterness of her disappointment gave pa.s.sion to her cry. Here was the last news of Harry Feversham, and it was brought to her incomplete, like the half sheet of a letter. The omission might never be repaired.

”I was a fool,” said Durrance. There was almost as much regret in his voice now as there had been in hers; and because of that regret he did not remark the pa.s.sion with which she had spoken. ”I shall not easily forgive myself. He was my friend, you see. I had him by the arm, and I let him go. I was a fool.” And he knocked upon his forehead with his fist.

”He tried Arabic,” Durrance resumed, ”pleading that he and his companions were just poor peaceable people, that if I had given him too much money, I should take it back, and all the while he dragged away from me. But I held him fast. I said, 'Harry Feversham, that won't do,'

and upon that he gave in and spoke in English, whispering it. 'Let me go, Jack, let me go.' There was the crowd about us. It was evident that Harry had some reason for secrecy; it might have been shame, for all I knew, shame at his downfall. I said, 'Come up to my quarters in Halfa as soon as you are free,' and I let him go. All that night I waited for him on the verandah, but he did not come. In the morning I had to start across the desert. I almost spoke of him to a friend who came to see me start, to Calder, in fact--you know of him--the man who sent you the telegram,” said Durrance, with a laugh.

”Yes, I remember,” Ethne answered.

It was the second slip she had made that night. The receipt of Calder's telegram was just one of the things which Durrance was not to know. But again she was unaware that she had made a slip at all. She did not even consider how Durrance had come to know or guess that the telegram had ever been despatched.

”At the very last moment,” Durrance resumed, ”when my camel had risen from the ground, I stooped down to speak to him, to tell him to see to Feversham. But I did not. You see I knew nothing about his allowance. I merely thought that he had fallen rather low. It did not seem fair to him that another should know of it. So I rode on and kept silence.”

Ethne nodded her head. She could not but approve, however poignant her regret for the lost news.

”So you never saw Mr. Feversham again?”

”I was away nine weeks. I came back blind,” he answered simply, and the very simplicity of his words went to Ethne's heart. He was apologising for his blindness, which had hindered him from inquiring. She began to wake to the comprehension that it was really Durrance who was speaking to her, but he continued to speak, and what he said drove her quite out of all caution.

”I went at once to Cairo, and Calder came with me. There I told him of Harry Feversham, and how I had seen him at Tewfikieh. I asked Calder when he got back to Halfa to make inquiries, to find and help Harry Feversham if he could; I asked him, too, to let me know the result. I received a letter from Calder a week ago, and I am troubled by it, very much troubled.”

”What did he say?” Ethne asked apprehensively, and she turned in her chair away from the moonlight towards the shadows of the room and Durrance. She bent forward to see his face, but the darkness hid it. A sudden fear struck through her and chilled her blood, but out of the darkness Durrance spoke.

”That the two women and the old Greek had gone back northward on a steamer to a.s.souan.”

”Mr. Feversham remained at Wadi Halfa, then? That is so, isn't it?” she said eagerly.

”No,” Durrance replied. ”Harry Feversham did not remain. He slipped past Halfa the day after I started toward the east. He went out in the morning, and to the south.”

”Into the desert?”

”Yes, but the desert to the south, the enemy's country. He went just as I saw him, carrying his zither. He was seen. There can be no doubt.”

Ethne was quite silent for a little while. Then she asked:--

”You have that letter with you?”

”Yes.”

”I should like to read it.”

She rose from her chair and walked across to Durrance. He took the letter from his pocket and gave it to her, and she carried it over to the window. The moonlight was strong. Ethne stood close by the window, with a hand pressed upon her heart, and read it through once and again.

The letter was explicit; the Greek who owned the cafe at which the troupe had performed admitted that Joseppi, under which name he knew Feversham, had wandered south, carrying a water-skin and a store of dates, though why, he either did not know or would not tell. Ethne had a question to ask, but it was some time before she could trust her lips to utter it distinctly and without faltering.

”What will happen to him?”

”At the best, capture; at the worst, death. Death by starvation, or thirst, or at the hands of the Dervishes. But there is just a hope it might be only capture and imprisonment. You see he was white. If caught, his captors might think him a spy; they would be sure he had knowledge of our plans and our strength. I think that they would most likely send him to Omdurman. I have written to Calder. Spies go out and in from Wadi Halfa. We often hear of things which happen in Omdurman. If Feversham is taken there, sooner or later I shall know. But he must have gone mad. It is the only explanation.”

Ethne had another, and she knew hers to be the right one. She was off her guard, and she spoke it aloud to Durrance.