fterward an added firmness in the repose of the lips. Immada moved
a step forward. She looked at Lingard with terror in her black and
dilated eyes. She exclaimed in a voice whose vibration startled the
hearts of all the hearers with an indefinable sense of alarm, "He will
perish, Hassim! He will perish alone!"

"No," said Hassim. "Thy fear is as vain to-night as it was at sunrise.
He shall not perish alone."

Her eyelids dropped slowly. From her veiled eyes the tears fell,
vanishing in the silence. Lingard's forehead became furrowed by folds
that seemed to contain an infinity of sombre thoughts. "Remember, O
Hassim, that when I promised you to take you back to your country you
promised me to be a friend to all white men. A friend to all whites who
are of my people, forever."

"My memory is good, O Tuan," said Hassim; "I am not yet back in my
country, but is not everyone the ruler of his own heart? Promises made
by a man of noble birth live as long as the speaker endures."

"Good-bye," said Lingard to Mrs. Travers. "You will be safe here." He
looked all around the cabin. "I leave you," he began again and stopped
short. Mrs. Travers' hand, resting lightly on the edge of the table,
began to tremble. "It's for you . . . Yes. For you alone . . . and it
seems it can't be. . . ."

It seemed to him that he was saying good-bye to all the world, that
he was taking a last leave of his own self. Mrs. Travers did not say a
word, but Immada threw herself between them and cried:

"You are a cruel woman! You are driving him away from where his strength
is. You put madness into his heart, O! Blind--without pity--without
shame! . . ."

"Immada," said Hassim's calm voice. Nobody moved.

"What did she say to me?" faltered Mrs. Travers and again repeated in a
voice that sounded hard, "What did she say?"

"Forgive her," said Lingard. "Her fears are for me . . ."--"It's about
your going?" Mrs. Travers interrupted, swiftly.

"Yes, it is--and you must forgive her." He had turned away his eyes with
something that resembled embarrassment but suddenly he was assailed by
an irresistible longing to look again at that woman. At the moment of
parting he clung to her with his glance as a man holds with his hands
a priceless and disputed possession. The faint blush that overspread
gradually Mrs. Travers' features gave her face an air of extraordinary
and startling animation.

"The danger you run?" she asked, eagerly. He repelled the suggest