rand stand' here raised quite a
flutter of protest. It was too bad of Miss Vidal to indulge in such
horrible imaginings, they declared. It made them quite uncomfortable.
Many a true word was spoken in jest--and so forth. But the men laughed
indulgently; utterly and sceptically scornful their mirth would have
been but for the sex and popularity of the speaker.

Many a true word spoken in jest! Yes, indeed. Here a lively holiday
scene--the clatter of the horses, laughter and jollity and flirtation--
nearly a couple of hundred men, besides women and children, the former
unarmed,--all save one. The wretched ryot returning at sunset to his
jungle village is not more blissfully unconscious of the lurking
presence of the dread man-eater, which in a moment more, will, with
lightning-like pounce, sweep him out of existence, than are these, that
yonder, upon the bushy slope almost overhanging their pleasure ground, a
thousand armed savages are hungrily watching for the signal which shall
change this sunny, light-hearted scene into a drama of carnage, and woe
and horror unutterable. All--save one.

"You've got such a lively imagination, you ought to write a book about
us, Miss Vidal," suggested Wyndham. "You could make some funny
characters out of some of us, I'll bet."

"I don't doubt it for a moment. Shall I begin with yourself, Mr
Wyndham?"

"Oh, I say though, I don't know about that. Here's Driffield, he'd make
a much better character than I would. Or Lamont--here, Lamont," he
called out, as the latter was passing near. "Roll up, man, and hear
your luck. Miss Vidal is going to write a book and make you the
principal character."

"Really, Mr Wyndham, I wouldn't have believed it of you," laughed
Clare. "To tell such shocking taradiddles. It's obviously a long time
since you attended Sunday school. Now, go away. I won't talk to you
any more--for--let me see, well, not for half an hour. Go away. Half
an hour, mind."

He swept off his hat with comic ruefulness. Then over his shoulder--

"I resign--_vice_ Lamont promoted--for half an hour."

"That means a whole hour, now," called out Clare after him, whereat a
great laugh went up from her hearers.

From all but one, that is; and to this one all this chaff and
light-hearted merriment was too awful, too ghastly--he, who _knew_ what
none of these even so much as suspected.

"And the flood came and destroyed them all," he quoted to himself. And
as he co