'All right,' said Kenneth; 'would you like to drive over to-day? We shall have plenty of time if we start at once. The dog-cart can be got out in twenty minutes, and we may be off in half an hour.'
He had now the opportunity he had been waiting for to fulfil Mary's commission, and already he felt himself writing to her in triumph, and describing how judiciously he had fulfilled her wish. He took the proofs she had given him of the poor baby's identity from his desk, and placing them in his pocket, was ready to mount the dogcart when it was brought round. The brotherhood of so many silent pipes had at last established itself between him and his friend Steele. The poor fellow at last felt able to speak the thoughts that were gnawing at his heart, and as they drove along that wintry road down to the sea, he spoke freely of his misery and of the shipwreck.
'Were there any passengers by the 'Maid of Cashmere' besides Mrs. Steele?' Kenneth ventured to ask.
'Old Brigadier Currie had engaged the state-room on one side of the cabin for himself and his native servants, and I had taken the other.'
'And had the captain or crew any women and children on board, do you think?'
'My wife, her maid, and the baby were the only females on board.'
'Then cheer up, old fellow! Perhaps things are not so bad as we have been thinking! Do you know that, now, for instance?' he added, pulling out the gold chain from his pocket.
'Know it? That? If I could believe my eyes I would say it belonged to my wife!' He took the chain and handled it very tenderly, and then went on. 'There was an old Begum we had been able to be kind to. A hill tribe had attacked her town, and she had fled for protection to Dourgapore, where we were stationed. My wife was the only lady in the station, therefore she was put under her care, and when she went back to her principality, after we had driven off the marauders, she made my wife some presents, and among the rest a bag of gold mohurs. I was doubtful how receiving a money present would sound at head-quarters, but our Colonel said it was a matter between the women, I could not be held to know anything about. However, to prevent misrepresentation, we determined to make it into jewellery, so we got a native goldsmith to string the pieces into a long chain. He sat in our compound and riveted the coins together with bits of gold wire, while we sat under the verandah looking on. You know these creatures are always watched while they work, to prevent their swallowing the gold, they are such inveterate thieves. But how came this into your possession? A piece of it was found clutched in my poor Lydia's hands when she was found.'
'Then I may tell you. I would have written weeks ago, but I was afraid to add disappointment to your other misfortunes, so I asked you to come here, and when you had come I found I could not speak to you about it. A man's grief seems such a sacred thing. But now. There was a friend of mine actually saw that ship caught up by the storm, and carried in shore and dashed against the rocks. They are rocks completely surrounded by water and surf at a high tide, and with an easterly wind. He could not possibly get near, and there was no human dwelling within sight, or for miles around, so he could give no help. But the following morning he was riding along the shore very early--earlier than the fisher folk, who, of course, came prowling along later in search of plunder and sea wreck. He came on the bodies of several of the drowned, and at last on a lady with her Indian maid. The lady had a piece of that chain twisted in her fingers, and not far off he came on a little baby so carefully tied up, and still alive. He had his own duties for the day, and he could be of no service to the dead, who, he knew besides, would be cared for by the proper authorities in a very little while, so he left them where they lay. But the baby was alive, and while he was examining it looked up in his face with such a friendly trustful look that he could not help taking it up and vowing to be a father to it till its own should be found.'
'And so he has been keeping my child hidden away through all these months of desolation!'