r of them felt the presence of onlookers.

"He saved my life, Mrs. Tudor!" he said simply. "He forced me to take it
at his hands. But I'm going back with some men to find him. You stay
here with Mrs. Raleigh till we come back. We shall be quicker alone."

A great sob burst from Audrey. It was as if the few gallant words had
loosened the awful constriction at her heart.

"Oh, Phil, Phil!" she cried brokenly. "You understand--what this is to
me--how I love him--how I love him! Bring him back to me! Promise, Phil,
promise!"

And Phil bent till his lips touched the hands he held.

"I will do it," he said with reverence--"so help me, God!"

CHAPTER XII

A WOMAN'S AGONY

All through the day and the night that followed Audrey watched and
waited.

She spent the terrible hours at the Raleighs' bungalow, scarcely
conscious of her surroundings in her anguish of suspense. It possessed
her like a raging fever, and she could not rest. At times it almost
seemed to suffocate her, and then she would pace to and fro, to and fro,
hardly knowing what she did.

Mrs. Raleigh never left her, caring for her with a maternal tenderness
that never flagged. But for her Audrey would almost certainly have
collapsed under the strain.

"If he had only known! If he had only known!" she kept repeating. "But
how could he know? for I never showed him. How could he even guess? And
now he never can know. It's too late, too late!"

Futile, bitter regret! All through the night it followed her, and when
morning came the haggard misery it had wrought upon her face had robbed
it of all its youth.

Mrs. Raleigh tried to comfort her with hopeful words, but she did not
seem so much as to hear them. She was listening, listening intently, for
every sound.

It was about noon that young Travers raced in, hot and breathless, but
he stopped short in evident dismay when he saw Audrey. He would have
withdrawn as precipitately as he had entered, but she sprang after him
and caught him by the arms.

"You have news!" she cried wildly. "What is it? Oh, what is it? Tell me
quickly!"

He hesitated and glanced nervously at Mrs. Raleigh.

"Yes, tell her," the latter said. "It is better than suspense."

And so briefly, jerkily, the boy blurted on his news:

"Phil's back again; but they haven't got the major. The fort was
deserted, except for one old man, and they have brought him along. They
are over at the colonel's bungalow now."

He paused, sho