I interrupted the silence that followed Ross' last words with a hint that the fate of the abandoned mission hardly touched on the story of Norah and Dick.
"So you think," said Ross, "that no emanation from the tragedies of the past lingers over their scene. I cannot bring myself to believe that the strip of land from Dixmude to the Vosges will ever quite lose the breath of four years' agony and heroism; though I know there is a view that those years may now be forgotten. However, I am telling this story and you must allow me to suggest that the wind of that elder tragedy still ruffled the beauty of the bay, blowing cold on Norah's heart. But since, however, you prefer strictly material facts, I will skip her presentiments, simply mentioning that they were interrupted by the reappearance of the two deck hands, who had collected, they considered, sufficient wood.
As Norah watched the dinghy, rowed towards the steamer's masthead light, recede from the now darkened shore, a great sense of loneliness filled her—that microscopic feeling engendered, for instance, by an imprudent glance at the stars.
It was succeeded by more practical apprehension.
'I wonder if we should have kept them,' she thought. 'What would happen to us if the boat...'"
CHAPTER X
Norah woke before it was light. She made no attempt to recapture a sleep that dreams had disturbed—dreams in which the ox was drowned again, in which a crocodile pursued her leaden steps while the Indian's crooked knife held Dick from her rescue. As soon as her watch showed half-past four, she summoned Changalilo from the fire which he had tended through the night, waking at intervals as a native will. Yesterday it had been decided to strike camp before dawn, giving him time to cook breakfast and carry their loads down to the shore ready to start at the first gleam of light.
Breakfast finished, Dick led the way to the beach. When they were twenty yards away, they heard a quick scrunch on the shingle and a quiet plop in the water.
'Ngwene,' said Changalilo casually, and kept back from the lake's edge, where the crocodile they had disturbed still might lurk.