g which Iris set before him.
Indeed he could hardly take his eyes from her as she ministered to him;
and the food he ate might have been manna for anything he knew to the
contrary.

Having finished his hasty meal and assured his kind hostesses that he
felt a hundred per cent better thereby, Anstice turned to Mr. Wood with
a new seriousness.

"It is nearly eleven o'clock," he said, "and I suppose we should be
thinking of taking up our positions? If you and Mr. Garnett are ready,
I'll call Hassan to take charge of the other window for a little while,
and have a look at my patient yonder."

The other men agreed; and Anstice left them stationing themselves at
their posts while he entered the next room and relieved the frightened
Rosa from her task of watching the invalid.

As he approached Cheniston's side he saw that as yet no fatal change had
occurred. Bruce still lay in a kind of stupor, half-sleep,
half-unconsciousness; but his pulse was not perceptibly weaker, and for
a wild moment Anstice considered the possibility of his patient's
recovery--a possibility which, however, he dared hardly entertain as he
looked at the haggard face, the sunken eyes, the peeling lips.

When Iris entered a minute or two later Anstice gave her a few
directions, bidding her call him immediately should Bruce awaken; and as
she acquiesced and sat down on the hard chair lately vacated by the
maid, Anstice looked at her with a feeling of rather helpless
compassion.

"Mrs. Cheniston, I'm so awfully sorry to have to ask you to sit up.
You're worn out, I know, and I wish you could get some sleep."

"Oh, don't bother about me!" She smiled up at him, and his heart
contracted within him at the look of fatigue in her face. "I'm immensely
strong, you know--and I can sleep to-morrow. Only"--the smile faded out
of her eyes, leaving them very sad--"do you think there is any
possibility of Bruce being better in the morning?"

"Yes--he is no worse than when I saw him an hour or two ago," Anstice
assured her. "And in a bad case like this even a negative boon of that
kind is something to be thankful for."

She looked at him again, rather wistfully this time; but he did not meet
her eyes; and presently he withdrew, leaving her to her lonely watch;
while he went to take up his vigil at the window in preparation for any
possible attack.

But that night passed without adventure of any kind.

CHAPTER IV

It was on the afternoon of the follow