d in his arms asleep with
her head against his neck was Tessa.

Monck's eyes were fixed straight before him. He was evidently deep in
thought. But the grim lines about his mouth were softened, and even as
Stella looked he stirred a little very cautiously to ease the child's
position. Something in the action sent the tears to her eyes. She went
back into her room, asking herself how she had ever doubted for a moment
the goodness of his heart.

Somewhere down the hill the blue jay was laughing hilariously,
scoffingly, as one who marked, with cynical amusement the passing show
of life; and a few seconds later the Rajah's car flashed past, carrying
the Rajah and a woman wearing a cloudy veil that streamed far out behind
her.

CHAPTER VI

THE ARRIVAL

Two months later, on a dripping evening in August, Monck stood alone on
the verandah of his bungalow at Udalkhand with a letter from Stella in
his hand. He had hurried back from duty on purpose to secure it, knowing
that it would be awaiting him. She had become accustomed to the
separation now, though she spoke yearningly of his next leave. Mrs.
Ralston had joined her, and she wrote quite cheerfully. She was very
well, and looking forward--oh, so much--to the winter. There was
certainly no sadness to be detected between the lines, and Monck folded
up the letter and looked across the dripping compound with a smile in
his eyes.

When the winter came, he would probably have taken up his new
appointment. Sir Reginald Bassett--a man of immense influence and
energy--was actually in Udalkhand at that moment. He was ostensibly
paying a friendly visit at the Colonel's bungalow, but Monck knew well
what it was that had brought him to that steaming corner of Markestan in
the very worst of the rainy season. He had come to make some definite
arrangement with him. Probably before that very night was over, he would
have begun to gather the fruit of his ambition. He had started already
to climb the ladder, and he would raise Stella with him, Stella and that
other being upon whom he sometimes suffered his thoughts to dwell with a
semi-humorous contemplation as--his son. A fantastic fascination hung
about the thought. He could not yet visualize himself as a father. It
was easier far to picture Stella as a mother. But yet, like a magnet
drawing him, the vision seemed to beckon. He walked the desert with a
lighter step, and Tommy swore that he was growing younger.

There was an e