'No dear, I wish to live, and I think I shall live a little while longer. I have seen you, I must see mother and father and the girls, and poor little Lucy, and Kit's mother, and the others. I didn't mean that I should die, but I may not be here. Didn't Kit tell you? I wander away sometimes. He used to tell me about it when I came back. "You have been somewhere else, dearest Grace." I can hear his little voice now. That was before Rungya left us. Afterwards, I remembered everything till I fell asleep and you found me.'
'Ah! but it was natural then. You were in such trouble. It is a wonder to me that you lived through it at all. But that is over!'
'Yes,' said Grace, closing her eyes, 'all over! all over!'
He watched her, his heart beating painfully. She lay quite still, and, hoping she was asleep, he stole to the door and lifted the chick, for in another hour they would have to start. He looked out, with a dazed feeling in his mind, at the sleeping camp and the fires that were burning brightly. He listened to the monotonous jabber of the watchmen, and saw how the solemn, silvery light, that would presently change the dark jungle world into an enchanted region, was beginning to dawn in the sky. Then he returned to Grace, whom he found with wide-open eyes and smiling lips. 'Is that you, Dad?' she said.
'Yes, dear,' he answered.
'Call the girls,' she cried. 'They said they would start early. The river is so lovely in the morning. Is the boat ready, Dad?'
'Yes, dear. It is moored under the willows. I will come for you directly.'
He took up Kit in his arms, and carried him out to Bâl Narîn. Tears were in his eyes, and the beating of his heart nearly choked him. Grace did not know him. She was 'somewhere else.'