‘Goodbye,’ he said, taking his hand from the pony’s neck, and she rode buoyantly away. He, turning to breast the road again, saw darkness gathering over the end of it, and drawing nearer.
At eleven o’clock next morning Brookes rose from her packing to take a note addressed to her mistress from the hand of a messenger in the Imperial red and gold. It ran:
‘Dear Miss Anderson—I write to tell you that I have obtained three weeks’ leave, and I am going into the interior to shoot, starting this afternoon. You spoke yesterday of leaving Simla almost immediately. I trust you will not do this, as it would be extremely risky to venture down to the Plains just now. In ten days the rains will have broken, when it will be safe. Pray wait till then.
‘Yours sincerely,
‘Horace Innes.’
Involuntarily the letter found its way to Madeline’s lips, and remained there until she saw the maid observing her with intelligence.
‘Brookes,’ she said, ‘I am strongly advised not to start until the rains break. I think, on the whole, that we won’t.’
‘Indeed, miss,’ returned Brookes, ‘Mrs. Sergeant Simmons told me that it was courting cholera to go—and nothing short of it. I must say I’m thankful.’