"Yes," she answered, simply. This poor haggard fellow would not long be in need of pals.
"Then give me your hand on that!" he said, eagerly.
She gave it, and he was still holding it with an emphatic and lingering clasp, as Mrs. Bourne and Jessie re-entered the verandah.
"Miss Miller and I have been squaring up old scores," announced Mallender, "signing a treaty of peace; for in Madras, we were dead cuts, and now we intend to be allies."
Later that same evening, when Tom and Jessie compared notes, they agreed, that the visit from Kartairi had wakened up Geoffrey in a surprising way, and done him a world of good!
CHAPTER XXVIII
A whole month had elapsed since his arrival at Bonagherry, and the invalid was now convalescent. He walked and rode about the estate with Tom, was unaffectedly interested in the crop, and its prospects, and wildly excited, when a panther took the "writer's" cow,—almost from under his roof! Vainly did he beg, pray, and argue for a stalk. This was inflexibly denied him, but he was permitted to visit, and mark, the well-known and respected "track" that like a glorified "cat's run" passed right through the estate.
The idler saw to the feeding and exercise of the pack of nondescript dogs,—such as are kept on most coffee plantations—generally the abandoned pets of people who have left the Hills and departed to England. Among this mixed multitude was a brown retriever, a respectable Aberdeen, a self-conscious pug, a Scotch deer-hound, a beagle, several terriers, and various hounds of low degree. The pug and the Aberdeen were adopted by Jessie, but the remainder of the pack were frequently summoned to hunt wild pig or sambur, in the thickest of adjacent sholahs.
Every Sunday the Bonagherry party went over to Kartairi, where Tom and Jessie were conspicuous and victorious at tennis, whilst Mallender sat and applauded, and talked to Mrs. Bourne, who was also a looker-on. He liked her; the popular enterprising widow, had a wonderful power of drawing out the best that was in a man, and offering her help and sympathy. She had learned from Tom, that his friend was returning to England as soon as he was fit; that he had come to India, on some sort of forlorn hope, and signally failed in finding what he sought; and thanks to his recklessness, had lost friends, health, and fortune.