Archie turned to the Captain.

"Give me your leave too."

"Certainly. I will make it right with the Major."

"All right, then, Doctor," said Archie; and, satisfied now by the Captain going off with the required information, the lad stayed, busied himself with Mrs Morley and Minnie; and after seeing the Doctor mount the kneeling elephant with his bag and instruments, and then wishing him good speed, they stood watching the great, slowly pacing beast till, as it turned off to reach the forest path, there was a final wave of the hand from the Doctor, and the next minute he was out of sight.

"That's being a doctor's wife, Minnie, my child; one never knows what to expect. Well, there, your uncle has gone off to do good. I never liked that Rajah's looks, but I hope he isn't badly hurt. Now then, what about this trip on the water? I really don't like your going, my dear."

"Oh auntie, how can you be so nervous?"

"I didn't like your going even when your uncle was here."

"But, Mrs Morley, there's nothing to be nervous about," cried Archie.

"My dear boy--"

"I say, hang it all, Mrs Morley! you might call me a man now," said Archie, interrupting her speech.

"Yes, my dear, I have plenty of confidence in you; but it's only you."

"Why, there will be the Resident's two chief boatmen, won't there?--You said there would be two men, didn't you, Minnie?"

"Yes, of course; and we shouldn't be above an hour or two, aunt."

"No, I know, my dear; but--but--"

"There, aunt dear, uncle's going away so suddenly has upset you, and it does seem selfish of me.--Look here, Archie, it's very kind of you to offer to take me, but it would be inconsiderate of me to go. I'll give it up."

"Oh!" cried the lad, "I am disappointed."

"Yes, of course you would be," said Mrs Morley; "and it's foolish of me to make such a fuss about nothing. There, I am better now. I was a bit flurried by the Doctor going, to be away all night, and leaving us unprotected."

"And not a British soldier near," said Archie laughingly.

"Of course; of course," said Mrs Morley. "You will take great care of her, my dear boy?"

"Take care of her!" cried Archie. "Why, Sir Charles would have me out and shoot me, or wring my neck, if I didn't. Look here, madam, I'm too fond of Lieutenant Archibald Maine to run any risks. Now are you satisfied?"

"Quite," said the Doctor's wife, forcing a laugh.--"There, my dears, be off as soon as you can--but wait till I get a scarf."

"What are you going to do, auntie?"

"See you down to the boat, of course, my dear." A very few minutes later the Doctor's wife was standing on the banks of the river watching the Resident's handsomely fitted sampan--not his official dragon-boat-- being punted by two st.u.r.dy men up the glistening waters, Minnie turning from time to time to wave her hand, and lastly her scarf, just as they disappeared.

"It is foolish of me to be so nervous and frightened about crocodiles,"

said Mrs Morley, as she turned her straining eyes from where she had been watching the boat. "There isn't a sign of any of the horrible reptiles; and if it were dangerous those people would not be going up the river in the same direction;" and she remained watching a small naga with about half-a-dozen men plying their oars, sending the slightly built craft steadily up-stream. "Ah, well, I want to see them back.

What a lovely evening it is going to be; but how rapidly the night closes in! I almost wish I had gone with them, for it will be very lovely when the moon begins to rise among the trees."

The Doctor's wife gave a slight shiver as a faint waft of wind came sweeping over the tops of the forest trees, and she drew her scarf lightly over her head and shoulders as she quickened her steps to return to the bungalow. "It's not cold," she said half uneasily, "and yet I shivered. It's as if the nervous feeling were coming back. Two hours!

Well, they will soon slip by."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

A GREAT HORROR.

Those two hours did soon slip away, and after a.s.suring herself by the clock that the time had really fled, Mrs Morley went and stood in the veranda, gazing out in the full expectation of seeing those for whom she waited coming up from the direction of the river.

The night was glorious. The nearly full moon was silvering the tops of the trees and casting deep, black shadows on the ground. Here and there in the patches of thick shrubbery that had been planted to take off the harsh formality surrounding the parade, there were faint, twinkling sparks that gave a suggestion of how beautiful the river-sides must be where the lights of the curious insects flashed and died out and lit up again in full force; and for some minutes Mrs Morley stood breathing in the sweet, moist perfume of the many night blooms which floated on the air.

"It is very, very beautiful," she sighed, "but not like home. One tries to get used to it, and does for a time; but there is always that strange feeling of insecurity which will suggest what might happen--we so few, the people here so many, and always looking upon us as infidel intruders who have forced themselves up here to make a home in their very midst.

I am too impatient," she added, with a sigh, as she turned to walk to and fro in the veranda.

"I am too impatient," she repeated. "On such a beautiful night they would easily be tempted to go a little farther up the river than they intended, and they would tell the men to let the boat float gently back with the stream. They have tired the men, perhaps, and have told them to leave the boat to itself. Yes, a lovely night."

She went in, with a sigh, to speak to her two native servants and tell them that they need not stay up; but she found her care unnecessary, for they were already asleep. Then, obeying her next impulse, she woke them, telling one to wait and the other to walk with her as far as the river-side.

Here she stood with the woman, watching and trying to pierce the soft, grey mist that hung above the water, before looking round for some one-- boatman, or any other native whom she could question. But there was not a soul within sight, and as proof of the lateness of the hour, not a light was to be seen.

"Ah!" she cried, with a start, for the woman behind her had suddenly caught her by the wrist with one hand, while she stood with the other outstretched, pointing up the stream. "What is it?" she said. "Can you see the boat?"

"No. Listen."

"Ah! You hear them coming?"

The woman shook her head violently.

"Croc," she whispered; and her word was followed by a light, wallowing splash.

"Ugh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Doctor's wife, with a shudder. "Come back. They may have returned by the other path and called at the officers'

quarters. They are waiting for us by now perhaps," she added to herself.

Leading the way back to the bungalow, she hurried in, with straining ears, with the hope that the pair would come out to meet her slowly dying away.

"They must have come back directly we went out, learned that we had gone down to the river, and followed us."

Stepping in quickly to the servants' part of the bungalow, she found the other servant fast asleep, ready to stare at her vacantly and wonderingly as she was shaken into wakefulness. The woman had to be spoken to by her fellow-servant before anything could be got from her; and then it was only to learn that the expected ones had not returned.

"Something must have happened," said the Doctor's wife, fighting hard now to keep back the horrible forebodings that were troubling her. "Oh!

this is not being a woman," she said. "Come back with me to the river."

The woman hesitated, but Mrs Morley caught her hand, and they hurried back to the river-side, where, before many minutes of excited watching had pa.s.sed, at least a dozen horribly suggestive splashes had been heard far out upon the flowing stream.

"Come back," she whispered to her companion. "I cannot bear it. What!"

she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, as the woman crept more closely to her and whispered something in her ear. "Those horrid creatures drag people into the river sometimes? Yes, yes; I know--I know. Come back. Perhaps they have come," she continued, trying to speak firmly; and once more she hurried to the bungalow, to find the other servant again fast asleep.

The clock showed that it only wanted a few minutes to midnight, and setting her teeth hard in her determination, the trembling woman gave herself till twelve before starting for the officers' quarters and the Residency to give the alarm.