“The others are there still,” he replied, with a catch in his voice. “The bolomen were three to one, and they got us on a muddy hillside, you understand.” He was looking away, so he did not see the pity in her eyes.
“And the wounded?” she asked gently.
Still, he did not face her. “Felizardo leaves no wounded.” Then, suddenly, his pent-up feelings broke out, as was inevitable they would do when he met one of his own race, one to whom he could speak freely. “Oh, I feel such a hound for leaving them. I was at the head of the column, and the bolomen cut us off from the rest; and whilst we, a dozen men and myself, were waiting for it to come, they were boloing the others.”
“And then?” she asked.
“Then? Then they just disappeared into the jungle, and we came back, unharmed. They followed us almost to here, and they burned our stores at Katubig—they burned Katubig itself in fact, but they never tried to touch us. That’s what makes me feel so bad. To think they wiped out three-quarters of my men, and then let the rest of us go. They—other men, I mean—are sure to say we ran at the start.”
Mrs Bush shook her head. “I hardly think so. They will say you were splendidly brave to go up at all, and splendidly clever to get any of your men safely out of it.”
Basil thanked her with his eyes; but still he was not comforted. “It looks bad,” he repeated. “And I can’t explain. They wouldn’t believe the reason.”
“What was the reason?” she asked. “Tell me. I shall believe.”
He faced her now, fairly; and from that moment there was a new factor, the All-important Factor, something infinitely greater than the Law of the Bolo, in his life. In a flash, he understood how it was that Felizardo had been ready to take to the hills for the sake of Dolores Lasara. Then he told her of Felizardo’s daughter, and of Felizardo’s letter.
“Of course I believe,” she said, when he had finished. “It is just what one would expect of Felizardo …. Oh, we hear a great deal about him here, from the servants. No, Captain Hayle, you must not worry, really you must not. I know it is horrible, to lose your men in that way; but you had to obey orders. Ninety-nine men out of a hundred would have made an excuse for not going; but you are different.”