She slept with Muriel that night, but, waking in the dawning, just
when Muriel had sunk to sleep, she crept out of bed and, with Nick's
ring grasped tightly in her hand, softly stole away.
PART V
CHAPTER XLV
THE VISION
A gorgeous sunset lay in dusky, fading crimson upon the Plains,
trailing to darkness in the east. The day had been hot and cloudless,
but a faint, chill wind had sprung up with the passing of the sun,
and it flitted hither and thither like a wandering spirit over the
darkening earth.
Down in the native quarter a _tom-tom_ throbbed, persistent,
exasperating as the voice of conscience. Somewhere in the distance a
dog barked restlessly, at irregular intervals. And at a point between
_tom-tom_ and dog a couple of parrots screeched vociferously.
Over all, the vast Indian night was rushing down on silent, mysterious
wings. Crimson merged to grey in the telling, and through the falling
dark there shone, detached and wonderful, a single star.
In the little wooden bungalow over against, the water-works a light
had been kindled and gleamed out in a red streak across the Plain.
Other lights were beginning to flicker also from all points of the
compass, save only where a long strip of jungle lay like a blot upon
the face of the earth. But the red light burned the steadiest of them
all.
Pages:
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364