Part 52 (1/2)
His voice died weakly away; and Anstice gently bade him keep quiet for a while.
”No use talking and exciting yourself,” he said, for he could see the other's stock of strength was lamentably small. ”Lie still and allow me to talk over affairs with Mrs. Cheniston--we will put our heads together and evolve some plan for your benefit.” He hardly knew what he said, so filled was his heart with a pity in which now there was no faintest tinge of resentment for the unfair bargain which this man had once driven with him.
With a sigh Cheniston closed his eyes, and appeared to relapse once more into a kind of stupor; and when, in obedience to a silent gesture, Iris withdrew to the window, Anstice joined her there immediately.
Such remedies as yet remained to be tried Anstice determined to employ; but though he told himself fiercely that if mortal man could save Bruce Cheniston from the grave he should a.s.suredly be saved, he experienced that hopeless feeling which all who gaze in the very face of death know only too well; and he did not dare to meet Iris' eyes as he conversed with her in a carefully-lowered tone.
”I'll sit up to-night, Mrs. Cheniston, and you must try to get some sleep. I suppose”--he broke off suddenly, remembering the position in which they stood--”I suppose some of you watch--for the enemy”--he laughed with something of an effort--”every night?”
”Yes. I don't think we any of us slept last night,” said Iris quietly.
”You see we are so short-handed--only Mr. Wood and Mr. Garnett and Ha.s.san know anything about fire-arms; and Mrs. Wood and I, and Rosa, Mrs. Wood's nurse, have been busy looking after Bruce and little Molly Wood.”
”Of course. Well, I think the first thing to do, after I have given Mr.
Cheniston this”--he had been mixing something in a little gla.s.s as he spoke--”is to meet and hold a council of war, with a view to the most useful disposition of our forces. After all”--he spoke more lightly, so keen was his desire to see her look less anxious--”we are not by any means a force to be despised. We have four able-bodied men among us; and this place, from what I can gather, looks pretty impregnable, on one side at least.”
”Yes. Even Mr. Garnett admits that the Bedouins could hardly swarm up that rocky wall,” said Iris, with a slightly more cheerful air. ”And of course, too, we have not got to hold out indefinitely; for if my father reaches Cairo in good time we may have the relieving force here in less than three days.”
”Of course we may!” His tone was resolutely optimistic. ”Now, as soon as Mr. Cheniston drinks this we'll set to work.”
He approached the bed, and having with some difficulty roused Cheniston from his stupor, administered the dose deftly; after which he turned to Iris once more.
”You spoke of a nurse just now. Who is she?”
”Oh, she is only a children's nurse, and rather a broken reed at the best of times,” said Iris ruefully. ”She had hysterics all last night, but she's a bit more sensible to-day.”
”Hysterics or no, she can keep watch for half an hour,” said Anstice rather grimly. ”Suppose you find her and send her to me. Would you mind?”
”I'll go at once.” Iris turned towards the door, and Anstice noted with a pang at his heart that she was certainly thinner and moved with less buoyancy than of old. ”You--you won't be too severe with her, Dr.
Anstice? After all, she is only a young girl, and she has gone through quite a lot since yesterday morning!”
”Oh, I won't bite her head off,” said Anstice, with a short laugh of genuine amus.e.m.e.nt. ”But we have no use for hysterical young women here; and no doubt when she understands that she will amend her ways.”
”Very well. I will go and find her.” With a last look towards the bed Iris vanished; and for a brief moment Anstice was left alone, to wonder at the strange and unexpected situation in which he now found himself, shut up in this lonely building in the heart of the desert with a handful of souls for whose safety he could not but feel himself largely responsible.
He did not attempt to disguise from himself that the outlook was decidedly unpromising. Even though Sir Richard reached Cairo without mishap, some time must necessarily elapse before he could gather together what Iris had called the relieving force; and although Anstice had no reason to doubt the staunchness and courage of his fellow-defenders, he could not fail to realize that as a fighting unit they were altogether outmatched by the two or three score of enemies who were by now, apparently, thirsting savagely for their blood.
Then, too, the shadow of death already hovered over the little garrison; and as Anstice turned once more to survey the pale and wasted features of the man who had supplanted him in the one supreme desire of his life, he told himself that it would be a miracle if Bruce Cheniston lived long enough to see the arrival of the help on which so much depended.
”If I had got here a week--three days ago, I might have done something,”
he told himself rather hopelessly. ”But now I'm very much afraid it is too late. He is going to die, I'm pretty sure of that, though I hope to G.o.d I may be mistaken; and heaven only knows what will happen in the course of the next three days.”
As he reached this point in his meditations a voice in his ear made him start; and turning, he beheld a pale and distraught-looking young woman who might in happier circ.u.mstances have laid claim to a certain uninspired prettiness. At this moment, however, her eyes red-rimmed with lack of sleep, her ashy-coloured hair limp and dishevelled round her unintellectual forehead, she was rather a piteous object; and in spite of his resolve to speak bracingly to her Anstice's voice was quite gentle as he replied to her murmured question.
”Yes, I am Dr. Anstice, and I want you to be good enough to sit here and look after Mr. Cheniston while I talk over matters with the other gentlemen.”
”Yes, sir.” She cast a swift look at the bed, and then hastily averted her pale-brown eyes. ”Mr. Cheniston--he--he won't die, will he, sir? I mean, not immediate, like?”
”No, he will not die immediately,” said Anstice rea.s.suringly. ”All you have to do is to sit here, beside the bed”--he had noticed how she kept her distance from the aforesaid bed, and placed her in the chair he had vacated with a firm pressure there was no resisting--”and watch Mr.
Cheniston carefully. If he shows signs of waking come for me. But don't disturb him in any way. You understand?”
The girl said, rather whimperingly, that she did; and with a last glance at Cheniston, who still lay sunk in a dreary stupor, Anstice went quietly from the room in search of his comrades in misfortune.