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"Some months ago, then?" "Yes." "How did you come to notice him in the Maidan?" Mrs. Oliver shivered slightly as she answered: "He seemed to be watching me. I thought so at the time. It made me uncomfortable. Now I am sure. He was watching me," and she suddenly came forward a step. "I should like to go away to-day if you and your sister won't mind," she pleaded. Ralston's forehead clouded.
"Your Excellency has been very kind to me, and allowed me to leave Peshawur with a procession, guarding the streets so that I might pass in safety and with great honour. Therefore I make a return. There is a matter which troubles your Excellency. You ask yourself the why and the wherefore, and there is no answer. But the danger grows." Ralston's thoughts flew out towards Chiltistan.
"Go and get him!" she ordered almost fiercely. "It's the only chance left. Go and fetch him!" He looked at her doubtfully for a second, then, impelled by an authority that overrode every scruple, he turned in silence and tiptoed from the room. Mrs. Ralston's eyes followed him with scorn. How was it some doctors managed notwithstanding all their experience to be such hopeless idiots?
Linforth had admitted there was an Englishwoman for whom Shere Ali cared, had admitted it reluctantly, had extenuated her thoughtlessness, had pleaded for her. Oh, without a doubt Mrs. Oliver was the woman! There flashed before Ralston's eyes the picture of Linforth standing in the hall, turning over the cords and the cotton pad and the thick cloth.
Even Major Ralston's leaden sense of humour was stirred. As Tommy had declared, it promised to be a historic occasion.
Ralston's hand closed comfortingly upon hers. "You're quite safe, dearest," she said. "Don't be afraid!" "But it's so dreadfully dark," Stella said restlessly. "I shouldn't mind if I could see the way. But I can't I can't." "Be patient, darling!" said Mrs. Ralston very tenderly. "It will be lighter presently." It was growing very late.
Away along some hours after midnight, I would hear some of the boys coming in from the still, letting out keen, piercing whoops that could be heard nearly a mile. "The swats sae reamed in every noddle, They cared na rebs nor guards a boddle." I took just one little taste of the stuff, from Sam Ralston's canteen.
Over his lifeless body she looked at her mother with eyes of burning furious hatred. "You've killed him!" she said, her voice sunk very low. "And I hope oh, I do hope some day someone will kill you!" There was that about her at the moment that actually frightened Netta, and it was with undoubted relief that she saw the door open and Major Ralston's loose-knit lounging figure block the entrance.
She broke off short as the subject of their discussion came softly into the room, salver in hand. He gave her a telegram and stood back decorously behind her chair while she opened it. Mrs. Ralston's grave eyes watched her, and in a moment Stella looked up and met them. "From Kurrumpore," she said. Her face was pale, but her hands and voice were steady. "From Tommy?" questioned Mrs. Ralston. "No.
In Virginia City William Sharon directed a branch of the Bank of California and kept his eye on mineral investment. Benito sat in Ralston's office one morning, smoking and discussing the Montgomery street problem when a clerk tapped at the door. "A fellow's out here from Virginia City," he said nervously. "Wants to see you quickly 'and no bones about it. That's what he told me."
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