I believed it to be about mid-day. But my bewildered brain was obsessed by thoughts of those two devilish plotters—Feng and Humphreys—who had been my friends amid the Alpine snows and had later conspired to kill me.
The full purport of what had actually happened I could not understand: I remembered nothing after the flash of flame and the noise of the opening door. Closing my eyes I racked my brain in useless conjecture. Why should the hateful old doctor, of all men, have shot that triumphant glance at me, while I lay there inert and helpless?
After that I must have lapsed into unconsciousness. The injuries I had suffered, coupled with the awful mental agony I had undergone, had brought about, as I learned afterwards, complete loss of memory and many weeks elapsed before I was able to understand what was going on around me.
My awakening to consciousness was a curious experience.
I was utterly unaware of anything that was passing until suddenly, I heard, as from a vast distance, a thin voice calling my name:—
“Rex! Rex! Rex Yelverton!” It came again. Then I seemed suddenly to wake up. There was a blaze of sunlight round me. And there before me, radiant and beautiful in a flimsy white summer gown, stood Thelma, her face positively shining with happiness and tears of joy running down her beautiful face.
I held my breath, scarcely believing I could be awake. Was it a vision? Memory rushed back to me. Again I saw Thelma, limp and helpless, in that hateful room at Hampstead. Was I alive? Had she indeed escaped the awful fate that had threatened her.
There she stood against a background of high feathery palms. Beyond her was a sapphire, sunlit sea, while around were orange trees heavily laden with fruit and a wealth of climbing geraniums and crimson rambler roses.
As my brain slowly cleared I looked around. To my surprise I found myself seated in a low cane lounge-chair upon a well-kept lawn—seemingly a hotel-garden. Not far away some people were strenuously playing tennis; others were seated beneath great orange and emerald colored umbrellas, taking tea.
“Thelma!” I gasped, my burning eyes staring and bewildered.