"What is it, Stara? Quick! it's sweet of you to come after me, but the ... train."
Stara was silent, struggling with difficult words.
"Stara, you must hurry. Lord! but there's the train in sight."
"Hector, I—I, oh, I can't, I can't. I'll write. Good-bye, my own dearest," and Stara, wheeling sharply about, galloped away whence she came.
Hector stood staring after her, with a vague feeling of uneasiness in his heart.
CHAPTER XIX
"Number One and All's Well."
The cry of the night sentry wailed through the silent barracks, which no longer looked bare and unlovely as when seen in the glaring African sun, but had been transformed by the moonlight into a city of silver walls and roofs of lotus pink.
"Number Two and All's Well," came in instant response, and then there was a pause.
"Number Two and All's Well," rang out once more, this time with the full power of lusty lungs, in the generous hope of arousing Number Three, happily dreaming in his nest of hay. In vain, however, though Four and Five, alive to the emergency, took up the call right quickly Number Three did not answer, and the omission was at once noticed by experienced ears.