rpose. Nevertheless, he
took him back to the surgery and made him swallow some _sal volatile_ in
spite of protest.

"And now you won't be a fool, will you?" he said at parting. "I should
be sorry if you got shot to no purpose. Monck would be sorry too."

"Do you know where he is?" questioned Tommy point-blank.

"Yes." Blunt and uncompromising came Ralston's reply. "But I'm not going
to tell you, so don't you worry yourself! You stick to business, Tommy,
and for heaven's sake don't go round and make a mush of it!"

"Stick to business yourself!" said Tommy rudely, suddenly awaking to the
fact that he was being dictated to; then pulled up, faintly grinning.
"Sorry: I didn't mean that. You're a brick. Consider it unsaid!
Good-bye!"

He held out his hand to Ralston who took it and thumped him on the back
by way of acknowledgment.

"You're growing up," he remarked with approval, as Tommy went his way.

CHAPTER VIII

THE FIERY VORTEX

"There is nothing more to be done," said Peter with mournful eyes upon
the baby in the _ayah's_ arms. "Will not my _mem-sahib_ take her rest?"

Stella's eyes also rested upon the tiny wizen face. She knew that Peter
spoke truly. There was nothing more to be done. She might send yet again
for Major Ralston. But of what avail? He had told her that he could do
no more. The little life was slipping swiftly, swiftly, out of her
reach. Very soon only the desert emptiness would be left.

"The _mem-sahib_ may trust her _baba_ to Hanani," murmured the _ayah_
behind the enveloping veil. "Hanani loves the _baba_ too."

"Oh, I know," Stella said.

Yet she hung over the _ayah's_ shoulder, for to-night of all nights she
somehow felt that she could not tear herself away.

There had been a change during the day--a change so gradual as to be
almost imperceptible save to her yearning eyes. She was certain that the
baby was weaker. He had cried less, had, she believed, suffered less;
and now he lay quite passive in the _ayah's_ arms. Only by the feeble,
fluttering breath that came and went so fitfully could she have told
that the tiny spark yet lingered in the poor little wasted frame.

Major Ralston had told her earlier in the evening that he might go on in
this state for days, but she did not think it probable. She was sure
that every hour now brought an infinitesimal difference. She felt that
the end was drawing near.

And so a great reluctance to go possessed her, even though she woul