Part 42 (2/2)
”I served myself from first to last”
”You have learned the churlishness of a camel,” cried Trench ”A cao, will carry you till it drops dead, and yet if you show your gratitude it resents and bites Hang it all, Feversham, there's my hand”
Feversham untied a knot in the breast of his jibbeh and took out three white feathers, two se, an ostrich feather broken from a fan
”Will you take yours back?”
”Yes”
”You knohat to do with it”
”Yes There shall be no delay”
Feversha feathers carefully away in a corner of his ragged jibbeh and tied them safe
”We shake hands, then,” said he; and as their handswe part company”
”Part company, you and I--after the year in Oht?” exclaimed Trench ”Why? There's no more to be done Castleton's dead You keep the feather which he sent, but he is dead You can do nothing with it You must come home”
”Yes,” answered Fevershao on to assouan and Cairo At each place you will find friends to welcoo with you”
Trench was silent for a while He understood Feversham's reluctance, he saw that it would be easier for Feversham if he were to tell his story first to Ethne Eustace, and without Fevershaht to tell you no one knohy you resigned your commission, or of the feathers we sent We never spoke of it We agreed never to speak, for the honour of the regireed and kept to the agreement,” he said
”Perhaps you will see Durrance,” said Fevershae from me Tell him that the next tiland or Wadi Halfa, I will accept the invitation”
”Which ill you go?”
”To Wadi Halfa,” said Feversha ards over his shoulder
”I shall take Abou Fatma with me and travel slowly and quietly down the Nile The other Arab will guide you into assouan”
They slept that night in security beside the well, and the nextthey parted company Trench was the first to ride off, and as his camel rose to its feet, ready for the start, he bent doards Feversham, who passed him the nose rein
”Raet”
”Yes, Rah Swilly to Rathmullen You must drive the twelve miles to Ramelton But you may not find her there”
”If not there, I shall find her somewhere else Make no mistake, Feversham, I shall find her”
And Trench rode forward, alone with his Arab guide More than once he turned his head and saw Fevershaly drawn to stop and ride back to that solitary figure, but he contented hi his hand, and even that salute was not returned
Fevershaht nor eyes for the coht His six years of hard probation had co to an end, and yet he was more sensible of a certain loss and vacancy than of any joy For six years, through thened and sustained hi more ith to occupy his life Ethne? No doubt she was long since reat bitterness of despair for that futile, unnecessary ain the roo the quiet trees and lawns of St James's Park, he heard the knock upon the door, he took the telegram from his servant's hand
He roused himself finally with the recollection that, after all, the as not quite done There was his father, who just at thishis _Ti the pine trees upon the Surrey hills He must visit his father, he must take that fourth feather back to Raram, too, which must be sent to Lieutenant Sutch at Suakin
He mounted his camel and rode sloith Abou Fatma ards towards Wadi Halfa But the sense of loss did not pass froer at the act of folly which had brought about his downfall The wooded slopes of Ramelton were very visible to hireatness of his depression Harry Feversham upon this day for the first time doubted his faith in the ”afterwards”