CHAPTER IX
A few days later, the Major, who had sat throughout his dinner in gloomy silence, said: “I’ve had a telegram from Templeton. He says Adams left Dao five days ago on a three-day hunting pass, and he hasn’t returned. He says Adams has had it in his head all along to visit Guindulman, and he is sure now that he must have tried to get across, a mad man’s undertaking! And of course he didn’t make it, or we should have heard from him. Brentwood,” blaming the Adjutant, as he always did when he was disturbed, “why hadn’t Adams been transferred?”
“I can’t recall your saying anything about it, sir,” Brentwood pacifically replied.
“If he tried to come here there’s a reason for his being so long on the way, and he’ll be court-martialled for his pains. Even with a map this wilderness is hard to wade through. But if he actually went hunting, he has met with foul play. Hunting in this country alone! What judgment Templeton ever had is dissolved in whiskey, and Adams has gone stark mad.”
“Adams has been in Dao for nearly two years, seeing only an occasional Spanish launch captain, and a dipsomaniac,” Mrs. Smith remarked.
The Major was too deeply worried to challenge this. “We have no way of knowing what he did do. I have telegraphed O’Brien to take out some men.”
Julie who had sat listening, with staring eyes and a fevered face, gazed in fright at the Major. Adams had enjoined absolute secrecy concerning his dash in and out of Guindulman. If she were to disclose his adventure, she would expose him to military trial. If she did not— She gazed round the anxiety-weighted table, and tried with palpitating heart to come to a decision.
After dinner, walking agonizedly down the hill, she tried again to think what to do. Adams had said it might take him two or three days to get back. If he should arrive back, safely, it might appear that he had been lost on his deer hunt; how could she dare to subject him to court-martial? How, on the other hand, could she dare risk his life by another hour’s loss of time in telling what she knew? His safety came first of all.
She retraced her way, and knocked timidly at the Major’s door.
He opened it himself, looking at her rather strangely, she thought.