"You!" she cried. "Oh!"
She felt her legs weakening under her and she sat down abruptly on a chair.
"Thank Heaven it was there," she said. "I should have sat on the floor if it hadn't been." She dismissed the butler and held out her hand to Thresk. "Oh, my friend," she said, "there's your steamer on its way to Aden."
Her voice rang with enthusiasm and admiration. Thresk only nodded his head gloomily.
"I have missed it," he replied. "It's very unfortunate. I have clients waiting for me in London."
"You missed it on purpose," she declared and Thresk's face relaxed into a smile. He turned away from the window to her. He seemed suddenly to wear the look of a boy.
"I have the best of excuses," he replied, "the perfect excuse." But even he could not foresee how completely that excuse was to serve him.
"Sit down," said Jane Repton, "and tell me. You went to Chitipur, I know.
From your presence here I know too that you found—them—there."
"No," said Thresk, "I didn't." He sat down and looked straight into Jane
Repton's eyes. "I had a stroke of luck. I found them—in camp."
Jane Repton understood all that the last two words implied.