he
Gomal Pass into Mahsud territory, to take toll, not only in men's
lives, but 'in steer and gear and stack' for that day of treachery and
black disaster, whose hidden motive still remained a mystery even to
those most intimate with the tribes of the district.

Honor, who had not seen Lenox for nearly a week, was struck by a change
in him, whose significance she understood too well. The lurking shadow
in his eyes, the bitterness in his tone,--recalling 'bad days' last hot
weather,--so troubled her that she found surface talk and laughter an
effort, and felt grateful to Frank, who could always be counted upon
for more than her share of both.

She rallied him on his gravity, in happy ignorance of the cause.

"Sure ye're just in low water, Captain Lenox," she declared with her
big laugh, "because your dapper little screw guns have been left out of
the show. You want to be hitting the scoundrels back with your own
shells, eh?"

To which Lenox replied in an undertone of savage conviction that
puzzled Honor.

"You never made a straighter shot, Mrs Olliver. I'd give five years of
my life to be taking the Battery through the Gomal to-day."

But if Lenox had little to say for himself, Quita was not in the same
dilemma. In fact, it seemed to Desmond that she talked a little too
daringly, a little too much; and for the first lime he found his
appreciation tinged with criticism.

He had gathered from Lenox that she knew little or nothing of his
hidden trouble; but it struck him that a wife of the right sort (Honor,
for instance) would have guessed the truth by now. He knew how little
Lenox appreciated the constant influx of men to tea and dinner; and one
or two people--of the social vulture species--had already spoken to him
of her friendship with Richardson in the tone of voice which made
Desmond clench and pocket his fists, lest he should knock them down out
of hand. He took advantage of his seat next the Gunner to mention,
under cover of general conversation, his anxiety about Lenox's health;
and managed also to take part in most of his talk with Quita throughout
the meal.

She redoubled her friendliness to Richardson by way of flinging down
her gage; whereupon Desmond with admirable _insouciance_ retired from
the lists. Once or twice her eyes challenged his, half-puzzled,
half-defiant. Her quick perception detected his critical attitude, and
in her present mood the undernote of antagonism acted as a spur rath