“But if that is one reason for my not marrying?” asked Georgia.
CHAPTER V.
ACROSS THE FRONTIER.
“When we come to the crest of this rise we shall be able to see Fort Rahmat-Ullah in the distance,” said Stratford to Georgia. He had quitted his place in the long cavalcade formed by the members of the Mission and their baggage-animals, as it made its way across the broken ground, alternately sandy and rocky, which characterises the districts lying near the frontier of Khemistan, and had joined the two doctors, who were riding somewhat in advance of the caravan in order to escape the dust. Dr Headlam turned back to the side of Lady Haigh, with whom Stratford had been riding, and Georgia looked round at her new cavalier with eyes of eager interest.
“It was Fort Rahmat-Ullah that Major North relieved, wasn’t it?” she asked, although she knew perfectly well what the answer would be.
“Yes, during our last little war but two or three. It is our farthest outpost on this frontier, and, when the tribes were up, they naturally set their hearts on getting hold of it. Of course the garrison has been strengthened since then, and the pax Britannica is quite effective in the neighbourhood. We are to spend a few days at the fort, you know, before we bid farewell to civilisation, and make our dash into the desert, so that it is a comfort to feel that we need not expect to find ourselves besieged there. The only drawback is that North will be away.”
“Away?” asked Georgia in astonishment.
“Yes, didn’t you hear that he had got leave from the chief to go and see a friend away at Alibad, to the west of us? They used to work together in the old days, but North had the chance of distinction and got his V.C. and his promotion, and the other man didn’t. I rather like to see North going off in this way to look him up—shows he doesn’t forget old friends, and that sort of thing—and perhaps he is just as glad not to be lionised at the fort. It’s a little hard on us, though.”
“Yes, it is a little suggestive of ‘Hamlet’ with Hamlet left out,” observed Georgia, meditatively, determined that Mr Stratford should not perceive the unreasoning disappointment with which the news had infected her.
“And yet I don’t quite see what he could do for us if he was there, beyond giving us the gratification of beholding him on his native heath, so to speak,” pursued Stratford.
“Oh, well,” said Georgia, carelessly, “I was reckoning on his being able to ride out with us along the way he went, and show us just where his different adventures happened. It would make it seem so much more real, you know.” She was speaking easily and naturally, bent on accounting to herself as well as to Mr Stratford for that absurd sense of disappointment, which was so keen that she feared it must before this have betrayed itself in face or voice. But were Dick’s adventures not real to her? Had she not scanned the papers day by day at the time of the siege as eagerly as Mabel herself? And when at last the full account reached England of the relief of the fort, and of the heroism of the man through whose enterprise it had been accomplished, had she not bowed her head upon the page of the ‘Thunderer’ and cried heartily, out of pure joy in the remembrance that this man had once loved her? Decidedly there was no need that the events attending the relief of Fort Rahmat-Ullah should be rendered more vivid for Georgia; but Stratford seemed struck by the justice of her remark.