had left for the day but
at Terry's knock the Governor himself threw wide the door.

Profound thankfulness lit Mason's intellectual face. Grasping Terry's
hand he led him into the office.

"And the Major?" he questioned.

"Well--and very happy, sir!"

Keen-eyed, observant, in the moment of welcome the Governor had sensed
the new Terry, read the new contentment and confidence manifest in his
face and bearing.

In a few minutes Terry had sketched his experiences to his eager
auditor. The Governor contented himself with a bare outline, though
his eyes glistened. The Hills opened!

"Captain Terry," he said, "come in to-morrow and tell me the
details--I will give you the entire morning. To-morrow I will try to
tell you how happy I am in your safe return, and in the service you
have rendered this Government."

He rose, beaming with the news it was his privilege to impart.

"You had best run along now, Captain. You will find three
anxious--friends--awaiting you at the Major's house. They expected to
arrive to-morrow but caught the transport and docked yesterday. They
will be relieved to see you, for I had to tell them something of the
uncertainty we felt regarding your--whereabouts. Take my car, and run
along!"

And Terry ran along! He flew down the steps and into the automobile
and in three minutes was leaping up the stairway into the Major's
house.

Ellis, fatter, somehow absurd in tropic whites, met him at the
entrance. Meeting halfway around the world from where they had parted,
choking with the end of the dread suspense into which the Governor's
guarded references to Terry's disappearance had plunged him, Ellis'
big heart thumped in glad relief, but true to the traditions of his
lifetime environment he strove to repress it, to appear as casual as
though they had been in daily association. Pumping Terry's hand
spasmodically, he measured the ecstatic lad with extravagant care,
studied him from crown to heel.

"Dick, how do you do it?" he asked.

"Do what, Ellis?" Terry's voice was unsteady, too.

"Keep so fit in this oven of a country--you're as hard as nails!"

Terry's unsteady laugh rang through the big bungalow: "Go on, you
fakir--you're crying right now!"

Ellis was. He turned away as Susan rushed out of an adjoining room.
Laughing, sobbing, she threw herself upon her brother, held him away
to study his appearance, hugged him tighter, pouring out a volume of
questions she offered him no opportunity