"Would you like to hear?" he cried; and fell to musing for a moment. "We were crossing the Vaal, you know," he said. "It's celebrated for its rapid risings. The ford was quite easy when the first chaps went over, and in half an hour it was impassable. There was a commando not far behind us, and we knew, if we could get across, they couldn't follow, so we made a push for it I, as you know, was correspondent, not combatant; and it so happened that I had been with another column that morning, and had ridden hard to pick up with Lacy's. My horse was completely done. I was hardly knee-deep when I knew she would be washed away. Swimming against that current wasn't possible; I just grit my teeth and prepared to drown. But by instinct I worked my feet out of the stirrups, and we worried on, until the poor beast's foot rolled on a big stone and she slipped away, with an awful, human-sounding scream. There was a big trooper riding just above me. His eyes had been on my face, and he had ridden all the way, so as to try and break the force of the water for my mare. His horse was magnificent; and, just as I was going under, I found his arm round my body—Jove, what a grip! I wonder he didn't crack a rib or two.
"'Strike out with the other hand' he said in my ear; 'strike out for all you're worth, and I can hold you up.' And he did! My head was mostly under water, but I gave all the support I could, and his horse got through with us both! It seemed to me as if it went on for days, the fighting with the current, the struggle for breath; till all at once the water gave way under me, as it were, and my legs flopped down, and he literally hauled me out, holding me with his right arm, and I just clutching on as I best could. I faintly heard the cheering as we came ashore, and half a dozen chaps rushed to catch me, and then I fainted. They gave him his commission chiefly for that, I believe, and jolly well he earned it. And that was the beginning of our being chums."
She drew a deep breath. The long arm of coincidence had not been kind to Bert Mestaer. But how could she help that?
For ten days now, she had not known a moment's peace. Her usual profound, dreamless sleep had changed to white, wakeful nights of vague, dreadful apprehension of she knew not what. This would put a stop to her nameless fears. But it had come too suddenly. She was not ready.
Lance, however, would have no half measures. He had not, it is true, come there that day with the deliberate intention of clinching matters; but a fine opportunity had presented itself, and he had risen to the occasion with a success which bewildered and delighted him. Melicent's suggestion that he should give her time to think things over was impetuously scouted. Life was not long enough for hesitation, he told her, and his intense confidence did to a certain degree infect her. They would be married in the summer, and go to Greece, Sicily—India, if she liked, to see the architectural treasures of the world. Melicent told herself that it would be very nice indeed. He was already embarked upon an idea for their own house, if she chose to build one, when voices were heard, and steps on the gravel, and Captain Brooke and Theo peeped in.
"Oh, here they are, looking at some wonderful relic of the past!" cried Theo. "What a ridiculous, mouldering thing!" gazing with a laugh at the oaken angel.
Melicent took up the cloth, without a word, to cover her treasure from further insult. Captain Brooke arrested her hand.
"Won't you let me look?"
She laid down the cover and moved aside. The atmosphere thrilled with a sense of something unusual. Brooke had no suspicion of the truth. He knew Lance, but he thought he also knew Melicent. The idea of her taking a husband as a weapon of defence against himself had not as yet occurred to him. He looked quickly, searchingly, into her eyes, to ascertain what the matter was.
The result was curious. She met his gaze; and there rose up and revealed itself to him, the feeling always uppermost in her when he was present, fear. She did not know that she betrayed it: defiance of his unspoken question was what she meant to convey. But he saw fear; and the result was a flood of light which fairly dazzled him. He knew that he was recognised, and his heart rose within him. If she feared him, it was because she felt him dangerous. For the first time since he came to England, he saw a chance, a loop-hole for hope to enter by.