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Updated: May 19, 2025
He turned into Will's sitting-room and stretched himself out upon an ancient charpoy furnished with many ancient cushions that stood by the window. Will gave him a cigarette, and lighted it. "I wonder how many nights I have spent on that old shake-down," he remarked, as he did it. Nick glanced upwards. "Last year?" Will nodded. "It was like hell," he said, with terrible simplicity.
Oh no, my lad, we won't seek clouds where there are none. All the same, we'll be prepared." It was the morning appointed for the review, the preparations having been all made on the previous day; and the reveille rang out, making Archie Maine turn over upon his charpoy bed with an angry grunt, for instead of unbuttoning his eyelids he squeezed them up extra tight.
From the cover of an oleander a slight girlish form rose up and came to the door saying, "It is Bootea, Sahib; do not be angry, there is something to be said." By the arm he led her within and bidding her wait, passed to the bedroom and drew the heavy curtains of the windows. Then he went through the drawing-room and out to the verandah, where the watchman lay asleep on his roped charpoy.
It was not his work, but someone had to do it, and it had devolved upon him. Puck never would go to bed without him. It was too lonely, she said; she was afraid of snakes, or rats, or bogies. She used to curl up on the charpoy in his room, clad in the airiest of wrappers, and doze the time away till he was ready.
Because it was dark and his memory not working properly, time had ceased to be for him, and to-day was as yesterday and to-morrow. The ceiling-cloth above him was blood-red with light from the sepoys' fire in the compound, and all was as it had been when he had first lain down the night before. And yet.... Suddenly he raised himself upon the charpoy and called huskily for the khansamah.
He read and rocked himself to and fro, and simply cried like a woman without caring to hide it. The letters were so dreary and hopeless and touching. We forgot all about The Boy's follies, and only thought of the poor Thing on the charpoy and the scrawled sheets in our hands. It was utterly impossible to let the letters go Home.
Somewhat mollified and reflecting, at the same time, that this was all but a part of the game, to be expected by those who patronise rest-houses off the beaten roads of travel, the Virginian returned to his charpoy and immediately lapsed into a singularly disquieting dream.... He was strolling by the border of the lake when a coot swam in and hailed him in English; and when he stopped to look the coot lifted an A.D.T. messenger-boy's cap and pleaded with him to sign his name in a little black book, promising that, if he did so, it would be free to doff its disguise and be Labertouche again.
He threw a last kiss to his small sweetheart, and hurried after her. "It isn't in the least what I thought it would be," said Olga. "Nothing ever is," said Nick. He was sprawling on a charpoy on the verandah of their new abode, smoking a cigarette with lazy enjoyment. Though within sound of the native city, their bungalow stood well outside.
For a while the vision hung before him, tantalizing him, maddening him, eluding him. Then came a flash of lightning, and it was gone. He started up on the charpoy, every nerve tense as stretched wire. "Come back!" he cried, hoarsely. "Come back!" Again the lightning streaked the darkness. There came a burst of thunder, and suddenly, through it and above it, he heard the far-distant roar of rain.
Some hours passed. About midday he heard footsteps approaching the shed. The door was opened, and in the entrance Diggle appeared. "You will excuse me," he said with a sniff, "if I remain on the threshold of your apartment. It is, I fear, but imperfectly aired." He pulled a charpoy to the door, and sat down upon it, as much outside as within.
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