“He is very far from being that,” interrupted the corporal.
“He might have made good, even yet, if he were not so sick.”
“Perhaps he is making good,” replied the corporal gently.
“Yes,” she answered simply. “I think he is trying. In spite of the past I shall be in his debt. Ah! What is that?”
There had been a sudden increase of clamour behind them. Distant yells were sounding, and the two rifles were firing in rapid succession. For perhaps a minute and a half this went on, then came silence, followed by a single shot, and that again by a silence which remained unbroken. Corporal Bracknell stopped irresolutely.
“What do you think?” Joy whispered.
“I think it is the end one way or the other,” was the reply. “The last yell sounded as if the Indians were charging. In that case, unless the rush was stopped——”
“Dick and your man are dead?”
“Something of that kind. I think I must go back, and try and learn what has happened. There is nothing else for it. I simply can’t desert them without knowing what has befallen. You keep right on until you reach the main river—I will not be longer than necessary.”
“We shall wait at the fork,” she answered quickly.